


Let's Make a Deal

by CallMeHux



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant to 3.09, F/M, IceMechanic, IceMechanic Monthly FanFic Challenge, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-09-22
Packaged: 2018-06-04 15:51:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 38,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6664771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallMeHux/pseuds/CallMeHux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Raven is given the opportunity to save her people, she places her life in hands of the Ice King.  It does not go as either of them intend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rain

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfiction for The 100. Early chapters were not beta'ed, so all mistakes are my own.

The steady patter of the rain against the rocks lulled Raven into a much needed doze.  She was always tired now, the result of pain from damage old and new.  Grounders fought with arrows and blades and bludgeons, but most of her pain came from modern weapons – bullets and biomechanical chips and Finn.

Finn was real.

“We can’t trust him.”

“He’s the only one we can trust. Ontari is-”

Raven opened her eyes reluctantly, slowly turning her attention to the bickering pair.

“ _ Clarke _ ,” Bellamy bit out, only to freeze when she reached out to touch him. 

Clarke’s gaze flickered to the Ice King himself, who smirkingly watched the exchange. Carefully, she guided Bellamy deeper into the small fissure in the rock where their party was hiding from the whipping rain.

“Stupid.”  Or so sayth the Ice King - Roan - who was standing to the left of her seat on the ground, just under a rocky outcropping.

“Strong enough to take down the Mountain,” she retorted defensively.  She wasn't happy with Clarke or Bellamy, not after what they'd done, but they at least hadn't blown up her friends.

He regarded her appraisingly, the corner of his mouth quirking.  “I’m told you helped with that.”

Raven blinked up at the man, taking in the width of his shoulders, the scars on his face.  “So?”

He crouched down, so as to meet her eyes directly.  “He worries that I will side with the Commander because she is Azgeda.  But there is something better for my people than having an Azgeda Commander, especially one trained by my mother.”

She frowned at him, unable to keep herself from taking the bait.  "What?"

“Skaikru medicine and Skaikru…’mechanics’.”  The word rolled haltingly off his tongue.

Raven felt herself grow hot, fury bubbling up against Clarke.  

Again.  

Always, Clarke made a decision and always, Raven had to make it work.  Awkwardly, she pushed against the rockface to get to her feet, then stumbled past the King only to lurch towards the blonde.

“Clarke!” she yelled, startling both Bellamy and the object of her ire from their argument.  “You promised him  _ me _ ?” she demanded.  “And who else?!”

“What, no!” Clarke denied, blue eyes going wide.  “He wants medicine and he wants technology – no guns, just better farming techniques, machines to make their lives easier,” she hastily assured Bellamy, whose face had instantly clouded.  “I did not promise him people.”  Even though Raven had asked the question, Clarke only had eyes for Bellamy's reaction.

“You think you can give Azgeda medicine and machines but not the people who know how to use them?” Roan interjected, having followed Raven deeper into the fissure.  “Then we have no deal.”

Clarke blanched at this, opening her mouth to argue when Roan continued.  “This is how it is done here.  You understand this; I gave you his life for your word, once,” he motioned to Bellamy.  “You gave yourself to Lexa, for your people. Now you want peace with Azgeda; you want Azgeda to leave the coalition and follow you instead.  So you must give us what we want and this time, it is not you, Wanheda.”

“I can’t promise you  _ people _ ,” Clarke stressed.  “I can promise things, not people.”

“Then Azgeda will remain in the coalition.”  Roan turned to go.

“Wait.”  Raven couldn’t quite believe what she was about to do, part of her mind hastily calculating and moving forward while ignoring the part that was screaming for her to shut up. She steeled herself with a breath, staring at Clarke.

“Do we need this?  Do we need the Azgeda, the people who blew up our people, so badly?”

“The coalition has to fail and we need their army, yes,” Clarke acknowledged, glancing at Bellamy.  Probably repeating what she had just told him.  “The whole plan hinges on it.”  She swallowed, looking at Raven directly.  "You know how dangerous ALIE is."

“We can’t give you people who don’t want to go,” Bellamy interjected, voice dropping even lower than normal and shoulders straightening.  His gaze seemed to bore into Roan, who merely smirked in return. 

Raven was missing something there, she was fairly certain.

“But we can train your people to do what ours do,” Clarke immediately offered.  “I couldn’t give our healers if I wanted to; we only have a few left, and none to spare.  It's the same with our mechanics.”

“You train our healers and our people can come to yours for healing while they are being trained.  But we need a mechanic for the machines, if this is to work at all,” Roan insisted.  “Her,” he added, with a nod.

“Why her?” Bellamy demanded, fist clenching. 

Raven stared at the Ice King, just as anxious to know the answer.

“You said she had to come on this mission, that she is your best.  We want the best.”  Roan’s answer took Raven’s breath away at first.  It was flattering.

“And she cannot run from us.”

The second part of his answer wasn’t.

“How do I know I’ll be safe with your kind?” Raven questioned angrily.  “The last time I spent any time with Grounders, I was tortured.”

Roan turned to her, expression hard.  “I will swear it.”

“Oh, that makes me feel so much better,” she replied sarcastically.  "Lexa gave her word once too."

“Hurting the one who will make the machines we need is stupid.  Ontari and the coalition can't offer us what you can,” Roan insisted.  “But Skaikru dies without this deal.  Make your choice.” 

And now, just like that, a part of Raven didn't want the choice.  The weight of the decision on top of everything else she had to bear?  Better to let Clarke, or Bellamy, or Abby…

Abby. 

“Raven,” Clarke began carefully, only to stop when the mechanic raised her hand.

“No,” Raven answered.  “ _ You _ don’t talk to me,” she growled, instead looking to Bellamy.  She swallowed roughly and asked him, “Would you do it?  If it were you?  Give yourself to the people who killed Gina?”

She already knew his answer.  So did Roan, from the way he smiled.

“If I thought they would honor the deal, yes,” Bellamy admitted reluctantly.  “But you are not me, Raven, you haven’t done what I’ve done.  My life-“

“Is not worth what her skills are,” Roan interrupted smoothly, ignoring Bellamy’s frown.  “Azgeda doesn't need Wanheda's Chosen. Azgeda demands Raven.”

Raven closed her eyes for a moment, trying to rein in her pulse from its galloping pace.  Roan wanted her and just her.  She didn't have to give the order to kill hundreds of people, didn't have to destroy anything that would lead to the deaths of hundreds, didn't have to hand over anyone to be kill or kill anyone that she loved.

Finn was real.

She gripped the charm that he'd fashioned in her hand and focused on her breathing.  She just had to hand over herself, build and maintain farming equipment for a tribe of Grounders that casually killed innocent people and followed a monarch.  That's all.  And then Arkadia would be saved.  Hundreds would  _ live _ in the real world because of what she would decide.

She opened her eyes, to find them all watching her, waiting for her decision.  Her hand twitched but she restrained herself from touching the scar on her right arm, another gift left by Lexa. 

"I want your oath that Azgeda will withdraw from the coalition, use its armies to support Clarke's plan, protect me from harm while I am with you and return me to my people when yours have been trained to build and maintain these machines," she told Roan directly, lifting her chin.

"You have it."

"In blood."

That made the smug bastard blink.  

"What?" Bellamy and Clarke said in unison.

"That's how they do things, right?  Blood and brands?  Well, I don't have a brand here for the Ice King," Raven explained before she could lose her nerve.  "So I want his vow in blood."

"Done," Roan quickly agreed, a true smile coming to his face.  "I'll get my men, to witness."   

When he left the three of them alone, Bellamy rushed to her side.  "Raven, are you sure about this?"  Clarke's expression mirrored his question.  Raven never expected their concern for her to be what united them again and again.

"Yes.  We need them.  You get your guarantee in blood and someone in Azgeda who maybe gives you a warning via radio if they're going to send an army to Arkadia.  I mean...it makes sense," Raven explained slowly.  

"Don't we need radio towers between there and here for that work?" Bellamy questioned skeptically, glancing at Clarke for confirmation.

"I might have an idea about that, but worse comes to worse, I build something with a hell of a powerful transmitter.  It's not like they'll understand what I'm doing.  Or even suspect.  You heard him; they think I'm weak because I'm broken, but-"

"You're not broken!" Two voices, one sentiment. What had Roan called them?  Wanheda and Wanheda's Chosen.  She could see why he thought that.

Raven gave the pair a half-hearted chuckle.  "Who else are you going to send?  Monty?  I think we all know that's not going to happen.  Sinclair?  He's a way better teacher than I would be, so he's the last person we want to send there.  We need him to train us, not them.

"This is my choice," she assured them with a resolute nod, releasing her grip on the charm.

Bellamy looked at her intently for a long moment, then nodded.  When Clarke was about to say something, he shook his head.  "She's made her choice, Clarke."  And the blonde listened, for once.

They were spared further awkwardness when Roan returned, trailed by a pair of Azgeda warriors.  They had similar scars on their faces, making Raven wonder briefly if they had rules for the kinds they wore.  Maybe they signaled class or rank or job.

Roan looked to her and she to him, her chin up.  "Well, get on with it," she snapped when only rainfall sounded in the small cavern.

His mouth turned up in amusement and he said something in the Grounder's language to the man on his right, who quickly produced a couple of pieces of nearly white cloth.  Roan pulled out the knife from the belt at his waist and made as if to cut his hand.

"Stupid," Raven interrupted quickly, only to be cast an incredulous look by the King himself while his men tensed up.  

"We're about to head into a battle, right?  And you're going to give yourself a cut on your hand?  Do it on your arm, higher up," Raven instructed with a vague hand motion.

Roan answered with a smirk and a shallow, acquiescent bow.  He handed the knife off to the man on his left and began to pull off the mix of armor and fur that covered his upper body.  Raven couldn't help but look as he revealed his torso, his muscles flexing in the dim light, eyeing the additional scars like the still red one puckering the skin on his right side.  

Once bare, he retrieved the knife from his warrior and positioned it over his left bicep. His eyes dropped briefly from her own to her chest and she scowled before he turned his attention to his own arm.  Slowly, he began to carve a figure into his flesh, not even flinching as the blade moved.

"I, Roan, King of Azgeda, vow to lead the Azgeda away from the coalition and into battle with Wanheda and to protect Raven from all harm as long as she wishes so that she may provide her knowledge and the work of her hands to the Azgeda."  He continued in the Grounders' language; Raven suspected that he repeated his words for his warriors' benefit.

When finished, he traded the knife for one of the cloth strips, laying it gently over the new wound.  To Raven's surprise, he soon pulled it free and then offered the blood-stained scrap to her.

Carefully, she accepted the cloth and gazed down at the blood-inked print of two arches meeting at a point in the middle.  Every child had drawn a bird like this at some point.

Apparently, he hadn't just been staring at her boobs.

Flushing, she gave him a tight nod of acknowledgement.  He returned her nod before offering her the now-cleaned knife, hilt first.

"And now you," he rumbled.  

Right, because blood vows are  _ exchanged _ .  

Bellamy's sharp intake of breath and the restraining hand of Clarke on his own were the only reactions from her people as she nodded, tucking the cloth into a pocket.  She tried not to think as she shucked her jacket and rolled up her sleeve to bare her left forearm.  She didn't miss Roan's murmur of surprise when he saw the long, still stitched line on the inside of her arm.  When she held out her hand for the knife, she determinedly sought out his gaze but ended up focusing on Roan's facial scars.

As she carved the point of the knife into her skin up near her elbow, Raven focused on the pain curling around her hip and down her leg.  The tearing and blood on her arm were nothing compared to what she had to face everyday, she told herself, as she traced a curve into her flesh, widening it as she went.  It wasn't even half as bad as the twin cuts ALIE gave her.

"I, Raven Reyes, of Arkadia and Mecha Station, vow to provide my knowledge and the work of my hands to the Azgeda, so long as the Azgeda leave the coalition, follow Wanheda into battle, and protect me from harm so long as I wish," she intoned.

When she finished, she traded the knife for cloth, creating the blot to hand back to the Ice King, and met his steady gaze with her own.

"Wanheda, Azgeda will march on your command," Roan declared, but his eyes never left Raven's.  Instead, he closed the distance between them quickly, causing her to stumble back towards the rock wall.  Before she could fall, he grabbed her upper arm, steadying her. 

"You are Azgeda's to care for now," he intoned, straightening her elbow and eyeing her new mark.  With more gentleness than someone like him seemed capable of, he wound another strip of cloth around her forearm and secured the bandage.  He seemed oblivious to his own state of undress and to his own cut, from which the blood continued to seep.

Raven chose to focus in on that, her mark in his arm, rather than the proximity of his chiseled chest or his focused gaze or the touch of his hand.  "Until I wish it," she managed to respond when she finally found her voice again.

"Until you wish it," he agreed as she closed her eyes, trying and failing to ignore the promise in his voice or the flicker of desire in her belly.  For the first time since she rejected ALIE and her chip, the pain of her body was the only thing she could ignore.

Because Roan was real.

* * *

 

Roan was pleased.

His plan to secure the coalition for Azgeda was supposed to have been carefully plotted.  But instead, he had to spring into action when Lexa had unexpectedly died, and not by his actions, as he had wanted, but instead by a jealous advisor.  With Ontari's loyalties still uncertain, he'd marched her back to Polis, only to watch the Flame slip through his fingers and the coalition begin to falter.

He had been scrambling since his mother's death, trying to get the Azgeda back to a place of security and strength.  And at every turn, he was countered, mostly unintentionally, by Skaikru, by the simple fact that they had technology and superior weapons and understood these things better than he ever could.  

When Wanheda - Clarke - had come to him with an offer of alliance, he knew it was his one chance to get what he really wanted - technology and people to train his own in how it was used.  Finally, he was on sure footing again.

But explaining that to the four Azgeda warriors in front of him would be weakness; he was King and he needed to rule, to command, not explain.

"Raven is for Azgeda now."  He waved the cloth stained with her blood vow as proof of his words.  He was certain that Raven had tried to mimic one of the scars that showed him to be royal, albeit unintentionally.  But that marked her as one to be protected so he did not protest.  "One of you is to be by her side at all times, in the day and the night."  As always, he spoke to them in their own language around Skaikru.

They looked at each other, unable to understand how a limping, wounded thing like that slight woman would be of value.  

"Like Bekka Premheda with Trikru, she has knowledge to make Azgeda the strongest once more," he finally invoked a name that would stifle protest, lest they waver in their duty.  There was a curt nod from Arde, the oldest of the Guard, and he knew he had them.  The coalition had been a problem for Azgeda for some time and they had only joined reluctantly when the wisdom of all the Commanders present and past had forced his mother's hand.  

He resettled his armor after dismissing them to arrange the watches on their own and cast an appraising glance at the sky.  With the wind tapering off, he knew they would need to set out again soon.  Unconsciously, his lips curved in a smile as he surveyed his newest prize as she pulled on her jacket.

Clarke had insisted on Raven, despite her physical weakness.  Roan only became interested when she had admitted that it was Raven who burnt the Trikru warriors to ash and destroyed the ability of the Mountain Men to defend themselves.  

He felt rather than saw Arde come up beside him.  Dark-skinned, grey-haired but still strong, Arde had spent over twenty seasons as a warrior for Azgeda. Roan was his second King.

"She did not flinch at the blade," Arde grudgingly admitted her strength.

"She bears pain as she delivers death at Wanheda's command."

"Your mother wanted Wanheda's heart and her power."

Roan barked out a laugh.  "I have learned, in my time away, that Skaikru power is not like ours.  It is in their knowledge.  Knowledge I mean Azgeda and Azgeda's children to have."

Arde gave him a glance.  "You mean to make her Azgeda."  He had trained Roan from the time he was a small child, and always he had known the direction of his charge's thoughts.

"It will take time for her to train our children, time to change her loyalty."  Roan allowed.  "Life with Skaikru has been difficult for her.  We will make her life easy."  He paused.  "Like a Queen with child."

Arde startled.  A pregnant Queen was given everything, servants for her every desire, in addition the cleanest water, the best food. All to insure the strongest, healthiest heir.  It would be hard for his people to accept that level of privilege for an outsider.  Unless, of course, she was not an outsider and was carrying an heir.

"She can give us weapons and defenses against the strongest of enemies.  Even if it takes a child in her belly to turn her for us, I can do that."

"You?" Arde turned to his King, his expression considering.  Perhaps he could still surprise the old man.

"She reacted to me."  Roan shrugged, trying to dismiss his own reaction to her. Smart and beautiful, unwilling to bend, unafraid.  Yes, he could bed her easily.  "And Skaikru blood is clean, strong.  I need an heir and Azgeda needs her."

"If she does not agree to become Azgeda, the child will be Skaikru," Arde warned. 

"She will agree," Roan informed him confidently.  

"If she does not?" Arde pressed.

"Skaikru does not trust us," Roan replied, nodding towards Clarke's chosen, who was speaking lowly to Raven.  "They will not trust a woman who chooses to lay with Azgeda.  She will be outcast among her own people.  He is the Wanheda's chosen and he struggles with her decision to lay with Lexa."

"She did not call him her chosen."

"You did not see her beg for his life.  And twice I have seen him risk his life for her.  Not for Skaikru, just for her. "  He could not forget the look, the joy and relief on the man's face when he found Clarke.  Roan had never looked at a woman like that.

"We should protect him in battle," Arde quickly surmised.  "If you cannot convince Raven to become Azgeda, then he is the way to control Wanheda and Skaikru."

Roan grinned.  "I thought that but he would kill himself if he thought we used him in this way.  Raven gives us what we need from Skaikru.  In a few seasons, we will not care about Wanheda or her Chosen."  He clapped a hand on Arde's shoulder.  "I knew I wanted Raven for Azgeda when Wanheda told me of her skill.  But when I knew her to be a woman of will…"

Arde shrugged as he eyed the woman.  "Not bad to look at, strong, clean blood," he seemed to repeat his king's words.  "I might have made the same choice."

Roan grinned.  "You did; Sammi was Trikru once."

The gruff warrior smiled, as he always did when he thought of his own chosen.  "Three daughters and a son, all for Azgeda," he confirmed, proud of his children.

"Then I will ask you if I need advice."

Arde snorted.  "Sami did not choose me because I made her life easy."

"Did Sammi look at you as Raven looks at me?"

"Perhaps," Arde admitted.  

"I will ride with her.  Be on her other side.  You can let me know if I say something wrong."

The older man laughed.  "She will let you know if you say something wrong, my King."  He nodded to the man's arm, making Roan chuckle knowingly.  He too had been surprised at Raven's outburst when he went to cut his hand as they usually did, but she had been right.  It would be harder for him to wield a weapon with such a wound.

As Roan approached the mechanic, he couldn't help but think Raven would always tell him if he failed her in any way. 

Curiously, the thought did not bother him.


	2. Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the unevenness of this chapter. All mistakes are my own.

The first time Raven felt a moment of panic as a result of her vow to the Ice King was when they entered the settlement that was Azgeda's capital. They called it the Heart - Tombom. 

Whatever this place had been before ALIE had set off all the bombs, it was now a teeming city, surrounded by a stone and metal wall at least ten feet high, clearly made out of whatever they could salvage. When the massive gates opened, the sound was almost painful to her ears. She looked askance at Roan, who rode on the horse beside her own.

"No one sneaks in or out of Tombom," he answered with a smirk.

She thought of "Raven's Gate" in Arkadia and gave him a knowing smile.

The remains of a road clattered underneath the hooves of the horses as they proceeded inside. There were buildings here, both pre and post-apocalypse, much like Polis. The older buildings were rarely whole, either mere pieces of what they were before, or only used for their walls. The newer buildings were uniformly smaller, if not uniformly made. Again, the Azgeda seemed to make do with whatever was available. Raven was pretty sure one of the buildings had walls made of cars. And there were people everywhere - on the walls, at the building windows, by stands selling goods and food.

But it wasn't the size or the construction of Tombom that had her nervous. Raven's problem at the moment was that everyone here appeared to be looking at her. The city had come to a standstill to stare.

At first she hoped they were looking at his Royalness. But it was soon very apparent that she was the one they were gawking at. The murmurs of "Skaikru" had nothing to do with Roan.

"They are looking at the woman who will help keep them fed, when she brings us Skaikru technology so we can grow more food," Roan explained, apparently having picked up on her unease. 

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it," Raven replied dryly.

Roan chuckled. "For many years, the Coalition, and Azgeda, wished to be rid of the Mountain. Skaikru, who are so few, did what neither could do in weeks of their arrival." He considered his next words, then added, "All who enter Azgeda territory without permission are seen as a threat, but Skaikru, even more so. Now, you are an ally, here at my invitation, to help us."

"Right. It's all thanks to you," Raven bit out, pulling her gaze straight ahead. She'd heard this line before, when the Azgeda had made a more formal treaty with Arkadia, now led by a small Council - Clarke, Kane, Abby, Bellamy and David Miller. It called for non-agression and some limited trade. The whole thing had been relatively easy, until Bellamy suggested Arkadia might offer more if Raven was allowed to remain. Roan had flatly refused and it nearly derailed the whole process.

"I cannot change the past but I can shape the future," Roan answered her mildly. She'd been baiting him deliberately during the journey to his home, hoping that if she made herself too prickly, he'd give up on having her stay with the Azgeda. So far, it hadn't worked.

At least she'd found that warehouse. Azgeda's army had been moving north, with pockets of warriors peeling off as they approached their home villages and settlements. They were somewhere in Maryland, she thought, when she noticed that the half-destroyed building to the right of the road. 

Or rather, recognized the corporate logo of ExMecha Corp.

Any Arkadian would have, since ExMecha was one of the principal military contractors for four of the twelve original stations. ExMecha parts had been used and reused and retrofitted all over the Ark. Her own station was named for them.

She had insisted they stop, which had led to a very loud argument with his Kingship.

_"Another time." His voice was resolute, firm, like he was speaking to an unruly child. "There are many pieces in Tombom that you-"_

_"Listen to me, your Worship. I don't know what you think you have at home, but I do know that me being on a horse is awful, and I'm going to avoid the pain of coming back here if I can, so I'm going to check this out right now and see if there's stuff I can use here," she told him, already clambering off her horse. One of her ever-present guards swung down easily, though he gave the King a wary eye._

_He had given her a very cool look. "Why do you think there is something useful inside?"_

_She pointed to the logo, a hexagon made of wedges in faded rainbow colors. "That's ExMecha. They made things that my people use."_

_"Mecha Station," he'd said then, making her pause._

_"Where you are from," he added._

So she had gone inside, with her guards and four others pressed into service and found a lot of destroyed equipment. But she found parts she could use - displays, relays, components big and small. And even a generator, in the back, in a crate, ready to be hauled off. That she had insisted go with them right away. If she could get it to work, she'd use that for most of what she needed power-wise, though she'd scooped up enough parts for a couple of fuel cells and some solar-panel pieces as well. If she couldn't, she could use the parts for something else. 

As they rode deeper into the city, she glanced back at the black crate on the wagon Roan had demanded of a nearby village, the familiar logo giving her some comfort.

They came to a stop before a large, three-story building with pock-marked square columns at the front. There were more than few chimneys, to judge from the trails of white smoke puffing peacefully into the sky. Windows had once been set into building in a symmetrical fashion, but some had been filled while others were merely covered with grates or uneven shutters.

"This is the palace?" Raven asked doubtfully, though others seemed to be dismounting. She'd been told she would be staying as Roan's personal guest, so she assumed this was his home.

He frowned. "The King's family lives here. The Great Room is here, for all to come when they need to see the King."

"Right," Raven answered before heaving herself off the horse with a sigh and a wince. She didn't know what she was expecting, actually. Just because he called himself a King didn't mean he had access to an actual palace or castle. Hell, the man slept on the ground like everyone else during their godforsaken journey north. 

She reached for her bag, but a woman's voice interrupted her.

"Mounin hou, Azplana."

Raven turned to find a dark-haired, caramel-skinned woman looking right at her. She had the marks that all Azgeda adults seemed to wear, but she wasn't wearing armor. Instead, she wore what looked like a long, belted beige jacket, with some sort yellowing shirt underneath. She was pretty, in an understated way.

Before Raven could ask if she was talking to her, Roan cut in, saying something in Grounder to the woman in a harsh tone. He glanced at Raven warily, then barked, "In this language."

"Welcome, Lady Raven. I apologize for my words before," the woman told her, her voice full of shame.

"Well, I didn't understand it, so no harm done. Don't worry about it." Raven aimed her glare that his Kingliness, the jerk.

He was unfazed.

"Please, let me take your things and show you to your room," the woman offered.

"I got it," Raven denied, slinging the bag over her shoulder. "Just show me the way," she added for Roan's benefit, who was watching this exchange. "Make sure they take care the bigger crate from Arkadia and the stuff we got from that warehouse."

He had the grace to finally look insulted. "We did not drag these things all this way to neglect them," he snapped.

"See that you don't," Raven tossed off, then motioned for the woman to lead the way. As usual, her guards trailed behind her. Annoying, as always. What did they think was going to happen here, in their own city?

She was halfway up the shallow stone steps before she thought to ask the woman. "What's your name?"

"Bregga, my lady."

"Just call me Raven." She didn't need titles. She wasn't royalty.

They passed through a set of doors, metal sheets of some kind, and into a small chamber that branched off in different directions. Bregga motioned to the right before heading down that hallway.

Eventually, they came to another set of metal-sheeted double doors. Bregga opened them both and led Raven inside. The guards closed the doors behind her as she stepped into the room proper.

"Whoa."

It was a pretty large room, taking up about half the space as the garage had at Arkadia. There were two large fireplaces, one on each side of the room, which made sense when you needed to heat a room this big. There were windows, all covered by grates but having interior shutters as well, probably for when the winter came. 

There was an enormous bed, covered in furs, as well as a long table, worn chairs from before the nuclear apocalypse and even…

"Is that a bathtub?" Raven asked, stunned.

"Yes, for your use, my...Raven," Bregga corrected herself. "It has been filled with heated water for you. If you would like to use it now-"

"Hell yes." It would be fantastic, not only to wash all the grime of travel off, but to soak her aching muscles. Raven dumped her bag on the table and headed for the tub with all due speed.

"Please, m- Raven, allow me to help."

"No." Raven stopped and turned on her. "Look, I appreciate that you just want to help, but I can look after myself. I'm sure you have better things to do then watch me bathe."

Bregga gave her a small, pained smile. "I am to serve you. Whatever you need, I am to help."

Raven blinked. "Uh, no. I don't need a servant. I'm not-I can take care of things myself. I'm sure there's lots of other work to do around here, go...do that."

"Please do not send me away." Bregga rushed at her. "I have already offended with my wrong words earlier. This position, I...I need it, for my family."

Great. Her choices were apparently to have a shadow or to get this woman fired. Raven fought with herself for a moment, then looked at the tub. Without plumbing, they-no, Bregga, probably-would have had to haul in buckets of warm water. And haul out buckets of used, dirty water. She couldn't very well fire someone who had worked so hard for her comfort.

"Well, we're going to have to rules, okay?" Raven relented finally. "Don't touch my stuff in that bag. If I need help with myself, I'll ask for it." She paused, trying to remember what she knew about servants from old movies. "Um, if I'm eating, feel free to eat too. Drinking, same thing." She looked around. "You don't sleep in here, do you?"

"No. I have another room, next door," Bregga answered gratefully, giving her a smile. 

"Great. I'm going to bathe now," Raven announced, shucking her jacket and everything else as fast as possible. She carefully eased herself into the tub, which was gloriously warm, carefully stretched out her bad leg in the water and sat back with a sigh. There was even a small table nearby with what she thought was probably soap, as well as a brush. She could be completely clean.

If this was life among the Azgeda, she could live with it for the next however many months she was here.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Bregga picking up her clothing and folding it over her arm.

"I shall wash these," she promised.

"Yeah, um, that's great, but I need to wear something else then." Raven thought for a moment then added, "Oh, and a towel, or something too."

It was kind of nice to have a servant.

"The King has provided you with all the clothing you may need," Bregga answered, setting her clothes on the table and walking over to a set of drawers. "What would you like to wear for the party tonight?"

"The what?"

Bregga looked surprised. "Have I used the wrong word? There is a..gathering? To celebrate the King and the Army's return."

"No, no, it's the right word." Raven gripped the sides of the tub as she tried to collect her thoughts. "I'm not prepared to go to a party." That sounded better then "hell no, I'm not going to a party."

"Of course not. But after you have bathed, and you are dressed, you will be," Bregga assured her. "This one is nice." She held up a dress that was purple and yellow. 

"I'm not really a dress person." Raven grimaced in distaste. "Pants. Something with pants." When Bregga beamed, she realized with a groan she had basically agreed to go.

In the end, she ended up in her own boots, some grey pants, a black tank top that did not have any holes in it, and this sleeveless dull grey leather full-length overcoat with a high collar that hid her brace from view. Lined with a soft, silver fur, it was incredibly comfortable. She fastened it closed and then pulled out her necklace, so the bird would still be visible. 

"You look very nice." Bregga tentatively ventured, "May I braid your hair?"

"No, don't need that," Raven declined, already looping her hair back into its customary ponytail. "So, this party. I'm going to go in, eat, drink, and get out. I'm tired and I just want to sleep, got it? 

"You will have to see the King." Bregga sounded apologetic and suddenly, Raven didn't envy her position.

"I'm sure you're going to get a lot of different orders from him and me. I'll make sure he knows that I'm the one disobeying him, not you, alright?"

Bregga nodded. "If you are ready, I can lead you to the Great Room."

"Yeah, let's get this over with," Raven agreed resignedly. At least she was clean. And would spend the night in an actual bed.

Bregga opened the door and led the way. Raven noted with some interest that only one of the guards followed them; apparently, someone was always going to guard the door to her room. Probably to protect all her special "Skairkru" stuff.

Actually, that wasn't a bad idea.

They went down the hallway, turning into a door that was nearly at the end, which opened up into a huge hall. What windows had been there had been completely sealed, some time ago, with light only coming from the torches set into the walls and two giant fireplaces that made the ones in her room seem small. Just like the city had been, the place was full of people, some warriors and some not, as well as children. Most had food or drink and were freely mingling.

The only one set apart was, of course, his Royalship, who was sitting on what was obviously a throne of metal at the end of the room. She noted that there was another, slightly smaller seat next to him, with a small table between them. A woman with a jug stood just behind it.

The conversation around them slowly died as Bregga continued to lead her into the room. Once again, Raven was the center of attention and once again, she hated it, not that she'd show these people that it was getting to her. She stalked her way over to the King, where Bregga introduced her to the man she'd already known for weeks.

"Raven kom Skaikru, my King. Raven kom Skaikru, this is Roan, King of Azgeda."

"Yeah, we've met." 

Honestly, was this why she was here instead of in a nice, hopefully comfortable bed?

Roan stood and she was forced to appreciate him once again. She thought that the journey here had rendered her immune to his good looks, but apparently it had only been the stink of horses, the thousands of soldiers around them and the lack of a shower that had made him temporarily less attractive. He cleaned up well and the sleeveless vest combined with the arm braces made him look, well, really good. 

Of course, he'd looked better without anything covering his chest.

If he hadn't been the King, maybe…

"Raven kom Skaikru, you are welcome. Join me," he invited, motioning to the other chair.

A chill ran through her at his words, his gesture and she understood. He meant to display her, like a trophy, to his people. 

"Actually, it's been a long journey. I'm just here for a bite to eat, something to drink, and then back to my room."

Roan merely smiled and once again gestured to the seat. "Then you must sit so that we can feed you and give you wine. We have fresh deer meat tonight."

Oh, the bastard. He knew how much she liked deer. When his warriors had taken down several a few days out from Arkadia, she had been thrilled. The last two weeks of their trek had been nothing but smaller game and the rations they'd taken from Polis. He'd probably sent someone ahead while they were on the road, insisting that there be deer waiting for their arrival.

Already, her mouth was watering. And if she made a big stink about wanting her food in her room, she'd look like the jerk, not him.

She knew the battle was lost, so she just nodded curtly and took the damned seat. Within seconds, she was offered both a cup of wine and a plate of food. The venison smelled wonderful, and there were even some roast vegetables to go along with it. 

To his credit, Roan gave her a few minutes to eat and drink before he pestered her. She'd almost forgotten he was there, since the crowd's conversation had begun again in earnest. Watching someone eat wasn't that interesting.

"Is your room to your liking?"

"Yeah, it's fine," she answered shortly, using one of the root vegetables - a potato? - to soak up some of the juices of the meat.

"And your handwoman?"

"Oh, she's great." Raven looked for her, finding her nearby, just waiting. "Go get yourself some food, Bregga. I meant what I said before." She eyed her guard as well. She thought his name was Werk, but that might have been the other one. "You too, big guy."

Of course, they both looked to Roan for his permission first, which thankfully, he gave with a nod.

"I don't need to be waited on, hand and foot. I do things for myself."

"I am told that among your people, you divide all the labor. You do not cook for yourself, or make your clothing. Your only responsibility to is build and maintain the machines that Skaikru needs. That will also be your task here."

"Yeah, but we don't get assigned servants."

"Here, you do. Would you like something more to eat?"

Raven looked down at her now empty plate, realizing with a start that she had demolished all the food. There had been quite a bit. And while she felt like maybe she could get another round, she knew her stomach wouldn't thank her for overstuffing herself.

"Ah, no." Quickly, her plate was taken from her. "Really, I don't need all this…" She waved a hand. "People, all the time."

"That is the way Azgeda treats its honored guests." Roan was unperturbed.

"Even if it annoys them?"

"Even so." He smiled again at her. He probably thought himself so charming.

He was infuriating. But it did remind her of a question she had.

"Why do you call yourselves the Ice Nation?"

His lips curved as he cocked his head towards her. "Do you truly wish to know?"

"No, I just asked to hear myself talk."  
What was it with this guy?

Roan took a long sip of his wine, then set the cup aside. "It is said that once, we were a happy people, living in a land of great bounty. The sun shone bright and the water was clean. There was food for all and life was easy. And we were mighty and without measure."

Slowly, a hush descended over the people in the hall, spreading out from where they were seated, as others began to listen to their King. From the way he spoke and the people's reaction, she knew with was the Official Story.

"But then came the Great Fire. It covered the earth, burning everything in its path, leaving the sky black with ash and bringing agony and death to the people. Some were able to run from the Fire, to hide in the holes they had dug in the earth, as they waited for the rain of flame to end. When they emerged, it was to a sky without a sun, to blackened rivers, to a barren and desolate earth. And the people were low and scattered."

Roan fell silent, looking out at those assembled. A man stepped out from the crowd and took up the story, continuing in a strong voice that carried throughout the hall.

"And among them was Darron, a learned man, he who would become our First King, who warned that without the sun, there would soon be the Great Ice. He had the people gather what they could, to return to their holes, before the cold could take them."

A young warrior, flushed with the heat of the hall and the wine, spoke up, her words loud in the silence.

"And our King was right as Ice soon followed in the wake of the Fire. What little the Fire had left alive, the Ice killed. The King knew that though the Great Fire had taken their sky, their water, their food and their people, it was fire that would keep the people alive through the Ice. Everything that could be burned to keep the people alive was burned. And the people were weak and few."

A woman, scarred, tall and unbent, spoke next.

"And the King said, 'One day, the sky will return but first we must live to see it.' And he set forth the rules of this new world so that they may live to see that day. He gave the people hope."

A young man, no older than Jasper, took up the thread of the story.

"The day came when the Ice finally knew that he could not defeat the people and it retreated. And each season, the Sun grew again stronger and the skies grew less black. And the people were few but growing."

And then a little girl stepped out of the crowd, her hair in long braids, wearing a wide smile and a pretty, faded red dress. Roan gave her an answering grin.

Raven ignored the way it made her stomach flip.

"Each season, the winter comes and brings with it the Ice, but this is Ice that knows it has been defeated for we took his name and made it our own. This is Ice that knows that Azgeda, we Azgedakru are a strong people, that it cannot kill us all. And Ice always retreats. And the Azgeda became strong and plentiful."

Roan then spoke again.

"And each season, the sun shines a little brighter and the Azgeda grow a little stronger, until one day, when the Azgeda will be once again mighty and without measure." He turned to Raven. "That is the story of Azgeda."

The crowd roared their approval and Roan lifted his cup to them.

 

* * *

 

Raven looked good.

That had been Roan's first thought when she arrived at the Great Room. Clad as an Azgeda Queen should be, she cut an imposing figure. More, the sweep of the fur-lined leather hid much of her limp from view, while also showing the strength of her arms. 

It also left his mark on her for all to see.

Over the weeks of their journey to Tombom, he'd grown fonder of the mechanic than he'd thought possible. She had not lingered with her people when they said their goodbyes, nor cried any tears for their separation. She had a dry wit he appreciated. She did not suffer fools. She accepted only the help she absolutely needed and nothing more.

She wasn't shy about any of her demands. Not when she said she preferred deer to boar. Not when she insisted they stop at the one ruin which turned out to have items that she needed to bring technology to the Azgeda. He had passed that building a hundred times in his life, never realizing the value of what lay inside.

This was Skaikru power. Knowledge.

They were lucky that the sign of her people had been there.

"And what of Skaikru?" he asked her. "What is the story of your people?"

Raven smirked at him. "Do you really want to know?"

"Of course. We have told you our history. Now tells us your own."

She began her tale with words that sounded memorized, eyes looking directly at him. "A long ago when the Earth was on fire…" She turned her attention to the people in the Great Room before them, all of whom had fallen silent once more to hear the story of Skaikru. " …twelve stations floated through space all alone. Then one day, Mir floated by Shenzhen, and they realized life would be better together. The other stations saw this, and they wanted to be together, too. When all the stations were formed, they called themselves the Ark. There was a thirteenth station which did not want to join and so it died, because it was alone."

Her voice became firmer, clearer, as she continued. "This is what we were told, but this was a lie." The people looked confused and the whispers began. Even Roan was unsettled. He had never heard anyone doubt their own history before.

"The truth is that before the fire, there was Al-ee, an intelligence created by a woman called Becca. Al-ee had grown past the control of her creator, and Becca fled to a space station in the sky called Polaris. She worked to find a way to stop her creation, but she was not fast enough. Al-ee set the world on fire." Raven took a drink from her cup and the crowd watched in stunned silence. 

Roan knew something of this, of course, since Wanheda had secured his help by explaining exactly who the evil spirit Al-ee was to him and what she had done. But these details, her relation to Bekka, that was new.

"While Becca worked on Polaris, a station of her own, twelve other stations mourned for their people lost on the ground. Each of the stations had come from a different country, a different people. One came from Russia, a land far way, over the ocean. One came from China, a land that exists if you go west for many days and then cross a great ocean there. And one, Alpha, came from this place, which used to be called the United States of America." There were gasps, murmurs, even a shout or two at this. 

Roan himself was dumbfounded. Could they have come from the same people, once? As the people grew more agitated, he stood and raised his hand. "Let her finish," he commanded, almost relieved when he was obeyed.

Raven nodded her thanks to him and raised her chin again as he resumed his seat. "The stations had been dependent on their people on the ground. Without them, they had to figure out another way to live. So, after two years, they finally all agreed that they should join together. Polaris also wanted to join, but first, they wanted to get rid of Becca's work. They were afraid that Al-ee would be with them if she continued, but Becca refused to stop. Finally, the day came when the stations would join together. Polaris would not join because they were still trying to stop Becca. But before they could, she left the station, taking a small ship and landing it on the ground, where she created a new city, Polis. 

"But Alpha Station, which knew nothing of Al-ee or Becca, was angry with Polaris for failing to listen and they destroyed Polaris as a warning to all the stations who might defy them. No one could refuse, now that they had agreed to work together. All would obey the One Law, so that in 200 years, when they thought the ground would be safe again, the people of the Ark would journey to the ground together.

"The One Law said that any crime, no matter how small, would be punished the same way: death." Again, there were gasps. "And children too. If they committed a crime, they were imprisoned, there to be examined the day they were eighteen. Most died on their eighteenth birthday but some were allowed to live."

Roan had always known that the Azgeda had a harsh life. Even among the people of the Coalition, to live as Azgeda was considered difficult. But to hear Raven speak of life as Skaikru was unimaginable. Death as punishment for all crimes? Healthy children locked away and then killed as they became adults? He was horrified.

Quickly, he thought over all he had seen Wanheda and her Chosen do, and say. He knew his mother had been very wrong about Skaikru, but the depths of her error were only becoming clear to him now. They were not weak in the slightest. 

"The Law said that there would only be one child for each family, because resources were scarce. There would not be enough air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat, if there were more. So all of Skaikru, we have no brothers and no sisters."

"Wanheda's Chosen has a sister," Roan interjected.

"His mother broke the One Law and she died for her crime. Octavia, Bellamy's sister, was imprisoned, because she lived when she should not have. When she was old enough, she would have died," Raven explained, glaring at him for interrupting. She returned to her story. "The Ark divided the people into groups, and each group had something to do, so that all would survive. Alpha were our leaders. Factory made our clothes. Farm produced our food. Mecha made sure our home would survive, that our technology would work."

"You are Mecha," Roan again interrupted. 

"Do you want me to tell this story or not?" Her eyes flashed dangerously. He couldn't help the smile that came to his face and inclined his head towards her, even as his hand caught hers.

"Forgive me," he murmured lowly, pleased to see her eyes widen. She paused, her mouth open slightly, before her gaze sharpened and she pulled her hand away. Turning from him, she spoke to the crowd again.

"We thought we would have two hundred years in the sky, but we were wrong. Not even a hundred had passed before we would have run out of air to breathe. So we sent our children down to the ground, to see if there was any hope for our people.

"And there was hope, because we could live on the ground." Her back straightened and she looked over the people, her voice growing stronger. "But we found others on the ground, and in the Mountain. And where we had only come so that we could live, we found only those who wanted us to die. 

"So we became Death, destroyer of worlds. We killed the armies of the Commander. We killed the Mountain Men. And when we found Al-ee, she who destroyed this world with fire, we killed her too. Because Arkadia, Skaikru, will survive and we will kill all who stand against us." She slowly surveyed the room, finally turning her eyes back to him.

All recognized the challenge, the threat of her words. There was a heavy silence that Roan knew he would have to break. 

He stood, raising his voice, and called out firmly, "Azgeda has survived the Fire, and the Ice, and lived to see the light return to our skies. We kill all who stand against _us_ , so it is good that now, Skaikru and Azgeda, stand together. Together, we killed Al-ee, who brought the Fire. Nothing shall stand against our combined might." He glanced at Raven, to make sure she understood.

Fortunately, she nodded. "Together, with Azgeda, we killed Al-ee," she agreed, even lifting her cup in salute.

"And so, tonight, we celebrate, that the world destroyer is dead and we are alive!" Roan called out, getting a roar from his people. "Go, eat and drink and enjoy!" There was another cheer and gradually, neither he nor Raven were the focus of attention anymore. People were too busy wondering if what she said was true.

He sat down slowly, making no secret that he was watching her. To her credit, she stared back. Finally, he told her, "You are still angry with the Azgeda."

"You killed our children, you killed our people at the Mountain, and you destroyed any chance I had to live a life without pain. Yes, I am still angry." She seemed almost surprised at her own vehemence.

"You also kill your children. Or did." Roan frowned, annoyed that he was taking the bait and giving her the argument she wanted, something she had tried to do again and again during the previous weeks. "My mother knew only killing and power. She saw your people as invaders and ordered them killed. It…" He paused. "Before my mother, the King, would have killed the invaders but not the children. They would have been taken, made Azgeda." After another beat, he added, "The Mountain had something to take away your pain?"

She flushed and looked away. "They had technology there that our doctors could have used to help me," she grudgingly admitted.

Once more, he felt the hot rage at his mother bubble up inside of him. Even from the grave, she interfered.

"You said we were one people once," Roan returned to her story. "Is this true?"

"Yes. At least parts of us. Part of Arkadia came from here, yes," Raven acknowledged.

He mulled over this for a time, swirling the dregs of the wine in his cup idly, wondering if this helped his cause to make Raven Azgeda. She would just be reclaiming her birthright.

More, it could help him convince the people to accept her as their Queen, if he could claim to the people that her bloodline had come from this place. So far, despite the rumor that he had already taken her as his Queen, no one had said anything about his choice. But once the excitement about the wonders she could bring them had waned, he knew he would face doubts.

"Was the King your father?"

Roan sucked in a breath, startled out of his thoughts. "No. My mother's brother." He knew the next question, so he answered it quickly. "He died in his sleep, one day, they say. His woman did not have any strong children. My mother became Queen."

"They say?"

"A knife in the back." 

"Let me guess. You blame your mother for that one too."

Roan shook his head, holding his cup out so that it could be refilled by the woman who stood by with the wine. "No, my father. He thought the King was weak, couldn't sire a child that was healthy. Once they knew me to be strong, that I would live to be trained, my father killed the man he had sworn to protect. For his betrayal, he was executed."

"So he.."

"He killed his King so that one day his son would be King." Roan nodded to Arde, who as ever, was standing close by the throne. "Arde killed him."

"But you're.."

"Arde knew his duty. A man who betrays cannot be trusted." Roan did not want to argue this, did not want to voice how much he trusted the man who rightfully took his own father's life, and took a long drink to settle himself. 

Raven colored, looking away quickly and clutching the charm that hung around her neck. He understood then. "You have been betrayed. You know the truth of this."

"Yes," she agreed, quietly. She drained the last of her wine and shook her head when offered more.

"I will not betray you, Raven." He touched her mark on his arm and nodded when her gaze followed his gesture. 

She closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat. When she looked at him again, she spoke confidently. "The stuff we got from the warehouse, I'll need that set up in a place where I can work without distractions. And you'll need to send me people to train."

When Raven was uncertain, she turned to what she knew, Roan observed silently. But he only nodded. "We will give you the best of our warriors to-"

"No," she cut him off, annoyed. "I don't need warriors. I don't want warriors. Warriors are useless with this. I need people who are patient, who can work with small things in their hands and not break them in frustration."

Roan considered this, then eyed Arde thoughtfully from his place near the throne. "Your daughter, the third one. What's her name?" 

Arde's expression hardly seemed to change, though Roan knew he was confused. "Reesa."

"She is the one who is seconded to the clothes-maker?" 

Arde confirmed this with a nod. "Yes, my King."

"No more. Now, she is to be trained by Raven," Roan decided. 

Arde almost seemed to tremble at his words, then finally bowed his head. "Thank you, my King."

Roan gave him a slight smile and waved him off. "Go, tell her and Sammi."

When he turned his attention back to Raven, she had cocked her head in his direction. "His girl," he began, rolling the cup in his hand, "has not the temper of a warrior. Finding her a position was not easy when are so many of us to feed. But mechanics will be very important here. This is a better life for her, a better life for all of us."

"Right." Raven shifted in her seat again, a sign of discomfort. "You want me to train more than one, though, right?"

"I will speak with the fishers and the smiths and take from them those who are best suited to learn what you have to teach." As he spoke, he set aside his cup and rose. He offered his hand to her. "Allow me to escort you to your room." When he saw she was about to bristle, he added, "If you are like me, you are tired from the journey. But there is much to do in the morning." He didn't think the way to her bed was to call out her weakness.

Still, she hesitated and something inside him snapped. "You still don't trust me."

"If I didn't trust you," Raven retorted hotly, slapping her hand into his. "I wouldn't be here. I just don't like you."

The laugh burst from him at her lie. "You don't want to like me," he corrected.

She gave him a glare, clearly annoyed that he had seen through her so quickly, but hauled herself to her feet nonetheless. After she was upright, she dropped his hand and began to make her way from the Great Room. He kept up by her side and nodded when her handwoman and her guard followed in their wake.

He didn't miss the way those still at the celebration watched them leave together and he smiled. As they stepped into the hallway, he told Raven lightly, "I like you."

She snorted. Not blushed, or tittered, or stumbled, as other women would have at his declaration. She _snorted._

"Of course you do. I'm awesome."

Whatever insult he felt instantly melted away with his laugh. She was very good at making him laugh.

"You are," he agreed, then decided to turn the conversation again since she seemed to be a better mood. "You are from Mecha, as you said. Where is Wanheda from?"

"Clarke," she stressed. "Is from Alpha Station."

"And her Chosen?"

He could practically feel the way she rolled her eyes. "Bellamy is from Factory Station."

"Not Alpha?"

"Yeah, definitely not." She continued down the hall for a step, adding, "He's not, you know. Her Chosen."

Again, he laughed at this blatant lie. "He is."

"I won't deny they have feelings for each other, but they're not together." The guards standing outside her rooms opened the doors as they approached. "They're just..they're like gears that fit perfectly with each other. Gears are round, uh, toothed wheels that-"

"I know what gears are." At her stunned look, he frowned. She clearly thought they were beyond ignorant. "The gates to Tombom, they use gears, as do the carts that we use to haul materials and people up and down the bigger buildings."

"Huh. Okay, well, then you get it. Together, they do things faster, better, more efficient. They just naturally fit together. But they're not lovers." She limped into her room, her handwoman following her, and he paused by the doorway. 

"Why not?" Who would bed one of them, seeing how they felt for another?

Raven gave a shrug of her shoulders. "Probably because they both like to be chased. I don't think Bellamy's ever made the first move on anyone and I know Clarke hasn't." She huffed. "And since everyone they've ever slept with is dead, I bet they both probably believe they're poison or something else stupid. Except me. But now I'm crippled and the guy who did it was trying to hurt Bellamy, so yeah, probably doesn't help."

Roan felt his stomach drop. "You are Bellamy's Chosen?"

She laughed. "No! Bellamy and I just slept together once. The closest thing he had to a Chosen…" Her smile faded. "Azgeda killed her, in the Mountain."

Inwardly, he winced. This, again. "Do you have a Chosen?" he quickly asked. It hadn't occurred to him before that she might be promised to another, but then no one had acted like her Chosen in all the time he knew her.

"Dead." She fingered her necklace again and he realized that it had been a gift from her Chosen. Who had betrayed her. 

The man was lucky he was dead, he thought with cold fury. 

"Well, we unchose each other before that, but..yes, dead."

He nodded and knew he should leave but was unwilling to go with those as their last words for the evening. "Do you wish us to send a message to Skaikru that you have arrived safely?"

Raven turned away from him, walking to one of the windows in her room and looking out onto the street below. "You can tell them I'm here and that we found that warehouse, so I'll have materials for a while. If they need something from me, they need to let me know."

"Very well." Roan nodded to her handwoman, who was waiting silently by the bed and who acknowledged him with a slight bow. As he turned to go, he heard Raven ask, "Do you have a Chosen?"

He prevented himself from smiling in triumph. "No," he lied easily, knowing it was not the time to reveal his choice. "Good night, Raven," he answered, shutting the doors behind him as he went.


	3. Beach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A day at the beach for Raven has a very unexpected ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much to @awesomenell65 for helping me fix a lot of the issues with this chapter. That said, all remaining errors and weaknesses are my own!

On the Ark, in the old movies or shows she'd seen, beaches were places with pale sand and gently lapping waves. They were uncrowded, clean, and almost always serene, where people relaxed, or celebrated, or declared their love. 

Those images bore absolutely no resemblance to the beach she currently found herself on, a silty flat area next to a wide river. To even the use the word "beach" was a stretch, in her opinion, though that was what the Azgeda called this place that was perhaps eighty meters long, where the Master Fisher directed the fishing activities of the entire waterway. The banks of this river were otherwise full of trees, like the water had just cut a swath through a forest. Boats came and went, delivering strings of fish or setting out to gather more. On the shore itself, there were tables placed end to end where men and women processed the fish collected, big ones and little, pulling out bones and preparing the meat for cooking or smoking or drying on one of the racks or even pickling. Others were coiling fishing line, or mending nets, or putting fish, already in the small containers they used, onto a wagon for hauling to Tombom proper. 

It was not clean. It was not peaceful. And it really, really smelled.

In that, this place was very like Master Fisher Drake, a tall, spindly man who was currently shouting at her. In her weeks at Tombom, Raven had gotten used to regular bathing. Even people who didn't live at the palace, in the city itself, seemed to have a healthy regard for cleanliness. She didn't know if the spatters of fish and the cake of mud Drake wore was the accumulation of more than a day's worth of work, but it certainly smelled like it wasn't fresh.

He waved his hand in a wide arc, to take in not only her but the machine she'd had brought with her. "There's no use for that here! Get your Skaikru garbage off my beach!" he shouted, drawing the attention of more than a few of the workers.

Raven stood a little straighter as something inside her snapped. She'd been prepared for his insults about her, and Arkadia, but he attacked her workmanship. And the work of her kids, too.

"Insult me or my children again, and you'll live to regret it," she snarled protectively. "I could care less about what you want on your beach. That there is a grinder, that will turn all your fish waste into fertilizer for Azgeda crops. Your King wanted it, your children made it, and it will stay here until Roan orders its removal or it falls apart. And I don't make make things that fall apart!"

Just behind her were the six kids themselves, watching the exchange wide-eyed, especially the two that had come from the fishers. Within a day of her arrival, they had been presented to her, two each from the tailors, the smiths and the fishers. The youngest, Ike, was twelve, while the oldest, Arris, was fifteen. He was nearly at the end of his training with the fishers when he was told he was to begin again, which had made him the most surly until she'd fired up a welding torch. Since then, really, all of them had been eager to learn. 

Reesa, Arde's girl, was her favorite though. Lively and curious, she made it fun to teach, something that Raven didn't think she'd take to at all. So far, she'd only taught them very simple things, like about welding, which the smith children, Shey and Carli, had taken to immediately, and explained some of the basics about energy, power, grids and circuits. She thought they understood pretty well, but honestly, she couldn't be sure. 

But they had worked very hard on the grinder, a fine-toothed contraption with multiple barrels that rolled with a handle. She even thought to put in a mechanism, so that the barrels could be pulled apart and safely cleaned. Remembering the cheer the kids had given when they'd tested the thing yesterday, she straightened when Drake just sucked in a breath to continue his tirade.

"I do not take orders from the weak," he spit out, hand moving suddenly.

Before Raven could so much as even decide what to do, the man's arm stopped midair, held in place by Ames, one of her two guards. Raven hadn't even seen the big man move, and yet there he was, forcing Drake's arm behind his back, causing him to yelp in pain. Werk moved to stand in front of the man and the two proceeded to bombard him with punches, turning to kicks once he'd fallen to the ground.

"Stop!" Raven called out, horrified. To her immense relief, they did, but only to bark orders to some of the workers who had stopped to watch the beating. Two rushed over, a man and a woman, and helped Drake to his feet. He sagged against them limpy, bleeding from his nose and mouth. 

"Take him to the cells," Werk ordered, eyeing Drake with contempt. He turned, nostrils flaring. "Where is his second?"

A woman stepped forward, one a few years older than Raven. Heavy-set, but in the manner that spoke more of bone density than meals, her auburn hair was caught up in a turban-like head wrapping. She too seemed coated in muck and she glared at Raven as she moved. "Here."

"Name!" It was a command, not a question.

"Hannar," she admitted, drawing herself up, eyes still on Raven.

"Will you do as your King commands?"

"I will." It almost sounded like a threat, the way she said it.

Werk turned to Raven and inclined his head before standing to one side with Ames.

She cleared her throat, eyeing the heated gaze of so many of Drake's people on the beach. "You'll put the fish waste in here," she began to explain, making it through without stumbling. But she didn't care to linger, not when she could see in their eyes what she'd seen before, in Polis, among others of the Coalition who'd wanted nothing to do with Skaikru.

The farmers had been wary of her, the smiths hostile, but there was something else going on here. Her first week or two in Tombom, she'd seen no one would even interrupt the King, much less defy an order. But the further she got from his palace, the more she spoke with the Masters, the more she got a sense that for the Azgeda, Roan was doing something new. And unwanted. 

_This is what mutiny smells like._

Yet another thought that would have not crossed her mind even months ago, but ALIE's influence had her seeking out people's weak spots almost as a matter of course. In all, she'd prefered the coding knowledge that came from her interface with the AI, but this particular skill was more useful in the here and now.

"Breena and Arris will show you how it's done," she added, waving the two former fishers over. She nodded at them. "Be sure to show them how to keep it oiled, and how to clean the teeth properly when something gets stuck."

They hadn't missed the attitude shift since Drake's beatdown and assented quickly. "Yes, my lady Raven."

That, unfortunately, was one thing she couldn't get them to stop doing. Even Bregga had returned to use of the title. With a huff of irritation, she turned to lead the remaining children and her guards back to the wagon that waited for them. Only once they were inside, with the guards riding horses to either side, did she address the matter.

"What is wrong with you?" she demanded of Werk as she leaned over the edge. "They're probably going to destroy the grinder out of anger for you beating Drake."

Werk seemed unfazed by her censure. "Drake defied the King. He will face justice." 

"But now you've just made them feel sorry for Drake," she pressed.

"I obey my King."

It was like arguing with a bulkhead.

"Fine, take me to the King. I'll let him know just how stupid that was."

Werk eyed her sidelong, and she knew that her appearance wasn't helping her case. They had done what they could to make riding in the wagon more comfortable for her, but it just wasn't, and now she had fishy beach mud on her boots, and her hair was escaping her ponytail. Werk didn't have to follow her orders, just his Royalness's. 

And yet, he merely exchanged a look with Ames, and nodded. "As my lady wishes," he rumbled before barking orders to the driver.

Raven sat back in her seat, trying to following the rocking of the wagon instead of fighting it in the hopes it would lessen the pain. She hadn't really seen Roan at anything other than meals, and once in her workshop on a tour, since that damned party. Apparently, being King of Azgeda was a lot of work, and he was often busy. Doing what, or where, she had no idea and, though curious, she hadn't wanted to ask.

Reesa moved from her seat on the side of the wagon to the one next to Raven and gave her a grin. "My lady Raven-"

"Please stop with the 'my lady' stuff, okay?" Raven asked in exasperation.

Reesa shook her head. "I can't, my lady. Your rank is well-known." 

Raven rolled her eyes at this. "I'm not going to stop telling you to stop."

The girl pressed on as if Raven hadn't spoken. "Is it true that the King gave you his blood promise that you would be protected?"

"Well, yes," Raven admitted, looking away and curling her hand into a fist to prevent herself from touching the curved scar on her arm. She'd been glad to find the tank top she preferred to wear clean this morning, since the day had promised to be very warm. Now, she was less enthusiastic about her clothing choices, where everyone could see her scars, even the the ones self-inflicted.

"And in return, you promised him you would train us."

"Yes," she confirmed.

Reesa nodded knowingly, scrunching her shoulders together. "If Drake had harmed you, as he meant, the King would be forsworn."

Raven blinked, quickly turning back to her trainee. She never expected to hear a grounder say a word like "forsworn." 

But there was also the implication of her words, one she could pick up on thanks to ALIE. "And the agreement broken. And I would return to my people."

"And there would be no one to train us, my lady, and the King would be seen as weak." Reesa lowered her voice as she said this. 

Raven sucked in a hard breath. "What..what would happen if Roan was not King?" she wondered, also dropping her voice.

Reesa eyed the others in the wagon covertly and evidently satisfied that they weren't listening, said, "There are no others. There would be a fight, for the throne."

Although she knew that Reesa was telling her this to explain the brutality of the guards, maybe even to warn her to protect herself better in the future, Raven couldn't help but imagine the fallout if she had been hit. She would be able to return home and the Ice Nation could fall into civil war, if Roan was successfully challenged for the throne. That might be good for Skaikru, given the size of the Azgeda army.

But, without Roan's protection, there's no telling if she would survive the long journey back to her people. Or that the Ice Nation wouldn't unify under someone more like his mother. Right now, the Azgeda army was a putative ally; she didn't want to risk making them their enemy again.

Which is why she had finally convinced Monty and Bryan to help her in Roan's quest for better food production. One of her first self-assigned tasks was to get back into communication with Arkadia, without the go-between of Ice Nation riders. Fortunately, she managed to rig up a very powerful transmitter, which she used sparingly and when the kids weren't in the workshop. Neither of the Farm Station-raised boys had wanted to help people whom they still saw as murderers, but she had convinced them, with Clarke's help, that keeping the thousands of people up here busy with agriculture was better than the alternative. Hence the fish grinder, to make fertilizer. 

"Still, beating that man in front of his people isn't going to make the fishers want to do what the King wants."

Reesa shrugged. "He is the King and he is to be obeyed if the Azgeda are to be strong."

"That's what you're taught, huh?" Raven had learned a lot about how the Ice Nation educated its children from teaching her own crew of six. As soon as they could walk and talk and do their business in the designated areas, they were put into classes and taught all the "histories" of Azgeda, from the story about the Great Fire to How to Slay the Ice. When they were about eight or so, they started physical training, with knives and bows and other weapons. By twelve, they figured out which would be dedicated soldiers, given their water and food and clothing, and which would be seconded to the other professions, who would watch and choose their own trainees.

Some, who were picked by no one, would have to find a way to live on their own. They could become nomads, or beg for a spot somewhere, or try to serve the King in another way. Bregga was one of those, who knew how to do many tasks in an effort to be useful, but had not been trained in any profession.

Raven was expected to watch the children as they trained soon, and pick some others to join her crew. She wasn't looking forward to it.

"The King Decides," Reesa confirmed.

"Well, the King needs to know that he's making more enemies this way," Raven retorted, then shifted in annoyance. "Making martyrs is never a good idea."

By the time they actually got to the damned palace, Raven was thoroughly pissed off. Tired, sore, overheated from the sun which chose today to brighten the sky to an unholy shade of blinding, she was more than ready to yell at someone. She dismissed her kids as soon as she was out of the cart, telling them they just needed to make sure the workshop was clean before they went home. Reesa and Ike were clearly disappointed, but Carli and Shey just eyed each other. Raven was pretty sure she knew that those two were going to be doing shortly.

Bregga appeared by herself within seconds of her striding through the doors. "My lady, you are back early!" She pushed her mouth into a thin line. "And you are muddy. Perhaps you would like to change?"

"My lady would like to see the King, actually. Tell me he's here somewhere," Raven insisted, waving away any suggestion of a change of clothing.

Bregga blinked, mouth opening slightly. "Ah, I believe the King is here, but he is not in the Great Room where he can be approached."

"Oh, is that how that works?" Raven wondered. "Well, I don't care where he is. His orders are in danger of screwing up everything else. I need to see him now." She looked around, then started for the hallway she'd seen him walk down more than few times. "This way, right?" 

Raven ignored the way Bregga trailed after her, trying to dissuade her from what she was doing. She took it as a sign she was going in the right direction and grinned when she spotted a couple of guards, including Arde, outside a set of double doors.

"The King's in there, right?" she asked, not slowing in her steps as she approached.

Arde and the other guard quickly moved in front of the doors themselves. "He is not to be disturbed, my lady," Arde told her.

"I don't really care about that, I need to talk to him," Raven dismissed the protest, though she paused about a meter away.

"He is not available. But I am sure he will send for my lady later today."

"Send for me?" she asked, tone brittle.

Arde seemed to recognize his poor choice of words. "Request your presence."

"Send for me," Raven repeated. "No, if he can see me later, he can see me now. I don't care if he's napping or if he's found someone to share his bed or whatever. This is more important," she snapped.

She was not at his Worship's beck and call. 

Raven stepped forward purposefully, pleased to see both guards scramble out of her way and pushed open one of the doors. Stalking in as best she could, she announced to the room, "We have a problem and your thugs aren't helping." 

Then she spotted him.

And then she froze.

Roan, King of Azgeda, was completely naked in the center of the room, standing before a wide basin set on a table. As she watched, he dipped a piece of cloth into the water and proceeded to swipe it down the hard planes of his blood-splattered abdomen, completely unperturbed by her interruption.

She knew, objectively, that Roan was a good-looking man. She certainly appreciated the hell out of his arms and the occasional glimpses she got of his torso, especially now as the weather warmed. But naked Roan was on another level. Being able to see every line of his body, from toned ass to hard thigh, the exact beginning and end of every abdominal muscle, to say nothing of-

Distantly, she heard the door close behind her. 

"My thugs?" he asked her. 

She blinked. "What are you doing?"

"Do I really need to answer that question?"

Raven shook her head, even though it felt like her eyes didn't move. "Why are you covered in blood?"

"The boar went down hard." He rinsed out the cloth in the bowl, motions unhurried. "The wound wasn't clean."

Several responses sprung to mind immediately, including, _I can see that_ , _you don't say_ , and _would you like some help with that_ , but instead, she managed to say, "Do you think you can get dressed enough so we can have a conversation?"

"If what you have to say to me is urgent enough to barge into my rooms, then there's no time for clothes." Roan's mouth turned up in that half-smirk she'd become so familiar with and all at once, she didn't care a bit that he was naked.

"Fine," she snapped, crossing her arms. "You people don't trust me, they don't trust your orders to listen to me, and having them _beaten_ isn't going to gain you or me their trust. They will use me to undermine your authority. And if they do that, the alliance with my people is over, to say nothing of my safety in your little kingdom."

He looked at her sharply. "You are worried about my hold on the throne?"

"Well, yes. We've seen what happens here on the ground, that alliances are only as good as the leaders that enforce them." Raven forced herself to meet his eyes. "I've heard the rumors. They think you're weak for bringing someone like me here."

"Then it is time to remind them why the Ice Nation has a king and why I am that king," Roan told her. He returned to his ablutions, rinsing the cloth once more before focusing on his legs. "But Drake was not beaten because he thought me weak, or for his shouting. He was arrested because he meant to hit you. He knew the penalty for that." He gestured towards her, but she knew immediately he meant the mark on her arm. "You have my oath of protection. I will not allow one of my own people to break it."

"Well.." Raven cast her gaze about, finally able to tear her eyes away from the king's body. "If he's been punished, then why has he been taken away?"

"He disobeyed my two of my orders. The first was that you were not to be harmed. The second was that you were to be obeyed."

Her eyes slid back to him, seemingly of their own accord. "And the punishment for that?"

"As king, I will judge him. For such transgressions, death or banishment have frequently been ordered. But I sense you wish me to show him mercy."

"Hell yes. You can't alienate your people and you will with his execution. You already have with his beating!" Just like Lexa forcing Clarke and Skaikru on an unwilling Coalition, just like Kane losing the election to Pike because he insisted on peace with the Grounders. 

"Then I must win them back," Roan answered calmly, to her unending frustration.

Then again, maybe her frustration had everything to do with the sight of a man who looked like that, parading himself naked around her.

In between the space of one breath and another, she decided. King or no king, she was going to sleep with him. 

"But tell me, what would have happened if your guards are not been with you?"

Raven blinked, dragged back to the conversation. "I..would have defended myself." After a moment's hesitation, she pulled the knife she had stowed in the side pocket of the pants she wore. 

"At least you do not go about unarmed," he approved, quickly wiping away the last traces of blood splatter. "And do you know how to use that in close quarter fighting?"

"I'm pretty sure the pointy end goes into the other guy's side," she drawled.

Roan flung down the cloth on the table with a sharp movement, crossing over to her so quickly she could barely fall back more than two or three paces. He caught her left arm to hold her fast and looked down at her in anger. And concern.

"This is not a joke. Can you defend yourself, Raven?" he asked insistently.

"Except to stab, no," she told him, trying to pull her arm from his grasp.

"Do you know where to stab?" he continued, icy blue eyes boring into her own. So intense was his question, she nearly forgot he was nude.

Nearly.

"Anywhere?" she ventured.

"No." His voice rough, he took the hand grasping the knife in his own. She felt the smoothed callouses of his fingers heavily against her skin as he moved her hand so that the knifepoint came to a spot by his ribs. "Here, push with a sharp upward thrust," he instructed, dropping his voice since his lips were so close to her ear.

"Better still," he moved her hand again, this time up, to the side of his neck. "Here," he continued, the point of her knife dimpling his skin. "A quick strike."

She sucked in an even breath, trying to regain the ability to speak, but being chest to chest with Roan when he was without clothing and when she was this aroused made it difficult.

"Or even." He lowered her hand, placing the knifepoint against the juncture of his groin. "Here."

Raven dared a glance below, past her heaving chest, to see her blade, her hand, mere inches from him. When she lifted her gaze back to his, she saw that same damned half-smirk.

"I literally have a knife to you," she reminded him, noticing that his lips were really not that far from her own.

"You have seen for yourself that I don't mind but it is not my preference." 

For a moment, she marveled at how the touch of the blade to the skin of his thigh could arouse him so much. But those thoughts fled as his grip on her hand eased, she let the knife fall from her fingers and he sealed his mouth to hers.

 

Roan laid back with a heavy sigh, happy to catch his breath and pleased to know that the woman he'd chosen for his Queen was as demanding in bed as she was in the rest of her life. 

Nor was she the type to linger. Climbing out of his bed already, she moved about unsteadily, gathering her clothing. "How are you going to remind them of you kingliness, exactly?" she asked him as she dressed, pulling her shirt over her head in a well-practiced gesture and then sitting heavily on the bed to pull on her pants.

That she thought like a Queen pleased him too. He pushed himself up, swinging his legs off of the furs and rolling to his feet. "Tomorrow, at sunset, I will call Drake to be judged, with his family to witness." Padding over to set of drawers, he pulled one open and retrieved a pair of his own. 

"You're going to execute him in front of his family?" He didn't miss the censure of her voice, the distaste.

"Do you want me to spare him?" he asked, stepping into the pants and pulling them over his hips.

"I told you, you can't risk getting the people angrier." He smiled to himself at her annoyance. "Would sparing him really…" She trailed off. He liked to think she understood the answer to the unasked question.

"We have laws. All must follow the law, accept their place. Only in following the law have the Azgeda become as powerful, as strong, as large as we are." He crossed over to the table, finding his dagger and strapping it to his leg. More than clothing, weapons made him feel as if he was dressed.

"And what is the king's place? What do you even do, besides issue orders?" Raven spat out.

He smirked, turning to watch her pull on her brace. "The King, or the Queen, is lawkeeper and general. We are tasked to learn each of the trades and we keep the knowledge of Darron alive so that the Azgeda might prosper." As she gave him a confused look, he explained, "I spend half my days with the army, training, making sure they are ready should we be attacked, protecting our borders and villages. The rest of my time, I spend with the others. A day with the healers, a day with the fishers, a day with the smiths. I know their trades, not as well, but enough to understand. My knowledge is used to make sure all do their task, so that all of Azgeda can survive. My decisions are to be obeyed not just because I am King, but because I have the knowledge to make them."

From the time he was four until the time he was twenty, each day was spent in learning the wisdom of Darron and training. As a child, he didn't understand why he had to learn everyday, all day, while other children could play, but as a man, he knew that it was his training that allowed him to see the benefit of a Skaikru alliance and of a Skaikru-born Queen.

Raven had fallen silent, gaze drifting as she thought. This too, he liked to see. His mother would have preferred he take one of the soldiers, as she had, one who did not think but merely obeyed. She had even tried to force the issue, once. But Roan wanted to insure his heir had more intelligence than belligerence. That had always been his mother's problem.

"I don't think you can afford to execute the Master Fisher," she finally said, coming out of her daze and pulling on one of her boots.

"He disobeyed my order. And you'd have me ignore the law and spare him?"

"No," she denied as she raised and lowered her lame leg with a quick gesture, to get her foot all the way into the boot. "But he's Master Fisher for a reason, right? Because he knows all the best ways and places to fish, to deal with the fish?"

"Yes," he admitted, leaning against the table to watch her.

Her hands moved quickly as she tied up her boots. "Then you'd be sacrificing his knowledge because, in the end, he doesn't trust me. I'm pretty sure he thinks, that a lot of people think, I've bewitched you, or maybe that you're afraid of Clarke, which anyone who's seen you with Clarke wouldn't think that, but." She shook her head. "What if I can show them why you believe in the alliance, in me?"

Immediately, he thought of Skaikru weapons, but soon dismissed the thought. He knew that she did not have access to those. "What you are doing for us will take time. The harvest will not come in for months."

"Yes, but there's still something I can show them now, explain to them." Quickly, she pulled on her other boot, fingers working to make a fast knot. "I'll rig it up in the Great Room, you can judge Drake or whatever, but please, spare him. Actually, if you make a big deal about why you're sparing him, that'd be better. You know, the whole knowledge thing. Because that's the key here. If they understand why you wanted me here, then they'll trust in your leadership more."

As she stood, so did he, regarding her thoughtfully as she bound up her hair once more. "If I spare his life, you must ask for it, publicly. So that he knows the mercy is not coming from me," he told her finally. "But he will be stripped him of his position, his portion of food cut, so that all know you cannot disobey the King."

She shrugged a shoulder. "I don't have a problem with that. He'll hate me even more, but that's fine, if the rest of them fall into line, right?"

"How much time do you need, to prepare?"

"A day, at least. I have to round up my children first, too. I dismissed them."

"Send your handwoman to do that. Let me know if you require additional people."

She nodded, gaze distracted as she moved towards the hall. He followed, scooping up an item from the floor before her hand touched the door.

"Don't forget your knife," he added with a smile, offering it over.

Her mouth quirked as she returned the weapon to the pocket of her pants. "I think your speech tomorrow will go better if you're fully dressed."

"As long as I have some assistance getting undressed afterwards," he murmured, pleased to see her smile in response. But he was surprised when she put her chest to his own and his arm, of its own accord, wrapped around her waist.

"Depends on how your speech goes, your Royalship," she murmured, lips moving just under his ear. Her hand slipped into his pants and she slowly wrapped her fingers around him. "Glad to see it doesn't take a knife to get you excited."

"Have you seen yourself?" he wondered, bending his neck so he could take her mouth again, licking the seam of her lips until she allowed him entrance.

She pushed him away after a time, only to smirk at him. "I have work to do," she reminded him. "So do you." Then she jerked open the door and strode down the hall, her guards and handwoman trailing her.

Roan watched this for a moment, willing his body to settle, until Arde moved into his line of sight. 

"My King. A word?"

He nodded, turning and walking back towards the table. "What is it?"

Arde came into the room, closing the door behind him. "Forgive me, my King, for allowing her to come into your rooms uninvited."

Roan chuckled as he reached for a clean shirt. "I don't want anyone to touch her, Arde, even you, so you did right. And, once she is Queen, she will always be allowed in my presence, my rooms. Best that you and the rest of the guards get used to that now."

He heard Arde shift uncomfortably. "Are you sure she will be Queen? She has shown no interest in becoming Azgeda."

"Hasn't she?" Roan pulled on his shirt. "She has come to rely on the ease of life here. Near daily baths, good food. She refers to her trainees as her children, has been seen defending my orders." He grinned. "Even now, she worried about my hold on the throne, offered me counsel to help me keep it. Whether she knows it or not, she is becoming Azgeda."

Arde considered these words, then nodded. "Reesa thinks well of her. Most of the younger Azgeda are curious about her, not afraid."

"Good. They will be her biggest supporters when she becomes Queen."

"But she is not Queen yet, and your treatment of her, your attention is-"

"I can hardly put a child in her if I ignore her or treat her as just another woman," Roan dismissed the criticism with a sharp look. "With luck there is one now, but if not, there will be soon."

Arde stood straighter and he could see that there was something else as he shrugged on a vest. "What is it, Arde?"

"Skaikru knowledge, that is what you want from them. But our people see only power. Would it not make more sense to tell Wanheda to put aside her Chosen, to make her your Queen?"

Roan paused, looking the man over carefully. He was nervous, but resolute. Instantly, Roan knew that Arde had been listening to, perhaps even approached by, members of the army, or even the guard, about his choice. Arde had been ready to accept Raven weeks ago at the cave, and now, was suddenly wary.

"You know Wanheda is a general, a leader. But it is Raven who has the knowledge. Do you think we need another general?" Roan asked, deceptively casual.

"No, my King," Arde denied vehemently.

"And with Wanheda comes all her people. Do you think the Azgeda would want to take the whole of Skaikru onto our lands?"

"No, my King."

"Some are comfortable bedding a woman so obviously in love with another, but I am not. Azgeda's Queen must have regard for no other, no other whose influence might color her decisions."

"But if he were dead-"

"So his memory can whisper in her ear?" Roan asked harshly. "Even worse. The dead have no more mistakes to make."

Arde nodded. "Of course, my King. Forgive my questions."

"Even if I had Wanheda here, they would still doubt my choice, Arde," Roan added, taking the sting out of his voice. "And Skaikru would doubt Wanheda's choice. No, better to take their knowledge but not their problems."

"There are those who do not see this," Arde allowed, looking guilty.

"I know it. And so does Raven. She is planning to show the people exactly what she can do for them, tomorrow, at Drake's judgment. I want you to make sure that each of the doubters in the guard is there and every captain in the army, every Master of a Trade."

His guard nodded once. "I will see to it."

"And Arde, double the guards on Raven. Drake would not have lashed out at her unless he thought he had true support to defy me. But make sure those guards are loyal first." He smiled then, thinking of the way one of her guards had looked at her. "Ask Werk to keep an eye on them. He will not let any harm come to her."

Arde curled his fist to his chest and bowed. "As you command."

Roan dismissed him with a nod, then went to pull on his boots. He thought of Raven's confidence in her idea, remembered what Clarke had told him of her prowess, recalled what she had done to defeat Al-ee. And he flashed on her grin, her grip on his arm, her breathy moans as he plunged into her.

He knew she was the right woman to be his Queen and he rather hoped that it wouldn't take a child to convince her.


	4. Anger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drake's "trial" and punishment has interesting results.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story will be coming to an end sooner than I originally intended. I’ve lost the desire to really work on it and it’s showing in the writing. I will finish the story, however, because I don’t want to leave any of the people who follow this story in the lurch.
> 
> My thanks to @awesomenell65, who took a look at this chapter and gave me some excellent notes.

With dusk upon them and no torches lit, the Great Room was shrouded in the murkiness of dying sunlight, so only those who happened to be close to or in the path of one of the rays could be truly recognized. Everyone the King had commanded to be there had arrived already, including every Master of a Trade and Hannar, Drake's second, the men and women who Werk acknowledged were the various captains in the Army, and an enormous number of those in the Guard.  Others were also there, like Drake's family.

Raven could see their hateful glares from where they stood in the front of the crowd.  You didn't have to be a genius to see the anger simmering inside of them, nor in the Masters of the Trades that stood near them.  Raven knew she had no fans there, what with her stealing some of their chosen trainees for her own.  Worse still, for them, she had the King's ear and they did not.  

One could hear the grumbling from where she stood near the throne, each of her six kids arrayed to left in a line from tallest to shortest.  Initially, when they had been positioned by Bregga, she had wanted Reesa by her side, but now, seeing the rolling unhappiness of the crowd, she was thankful it was nearly grown Arris next to her.  Just as she was thankful that a line of guards stood between her and the people, with Werk and Ames closest to her.

 _When did I land in a fantasy novel?_ She never thought she'd care about a political situation involving a king.  Even if some of the folks from Mecha station thought the Chancellor acted like one.  

The doors opened before she had a chance to dwell further on the comparison and Roan himself appeared, Arde walking before him and two others walking behind.  A path quickly appeared before the King, but he moved without hurry on his way to the throne, his head up and his gaze meeting those of his captains and trade masters.  

Roan's eyes met her own for a few seconds and the corners of his mouth upturned, the ghost of his usual smirk for her.  She inhaled quickly, remembering a few of the other ways his mouth moved yesterday, before schooling her own features.  Now was not the time to dwell on a pleasant - well, fantastic, really - memory.  

Once she moved past her own attraction for the King, she focused on some other details.  For the first time that she could recall, he wore a crown, a jagged metal circlet with a large piece in the center with the symbol of the Azgeda, the hand with the spiral in the palm.  From his neck hung a black, triangular medallion, on which the same spiral appeared in white.  Roan was also visibly armed with spear with a long blade at the end of the it, something that she was only accustomed to seeing outside the palace.  

He sat on the throne, the spear held easily in his right hand and gestured with his left.  "Bring in the prisoner," he commanded.

The doors opened again and Drake was led in by two guards, his face mottled with bruises from the beating he'd taken the other day on the beach.  Raven glanced at his family, saw the horror on his daughter's face, her face bright with tears.  But there was only a pinched fury on the face of his wife, who watched her husband's every step until he came to a stop ten meters from the throne.  Forced to his knees by the guards on either side, there was nothing but anger and defiance in his lanky frame.

Arde stepped forward from his place to the throne's right.  "Master Fisher Drake, you are accused of disobeying the King's orders.  He ordered that Raven, of Skaikru and Mecha Station, was not to be harmed, and you were seen to move to strike her.  He ordered that her orders were to be followed for her creations and you refused.  Do you deny this?"

Drake grunted in acknowledgement, eyes darting to Raven with barely contained malice.  "I don't."

"Do have anything to say to your King?"

Drake's head tipped up and he glared at the man on the Throne.  "The King should not listen to a woman of Skaikru.  Skaikru is weak, they tolerate weakness.  We should not listen to their weakest and think they will make us strong."

_Here it is._

Raven snorted at his words, drawing the attention of the King as well as many of those crowded in this room.  

"And you chose to disobey, rather than speak with me?" Roan questioned, gaze sliding back.

"I..did not think you wanted my words."

"That is true; I did not.  But I would have preferred them to disobedience."

"The penalty for disobedience is banishment or death," Arde intoned.  

"So it is."  Roan inclined his head.  "I am ready to pronounce punishment."  

That was Raven's cue.  "King Roan," she said in a clear voice, stepping forward.  "I would ask that this man be spared.  I know it not your way.  Mercy is not the way of my people, but we have changed now that we are on the ground.  We see the value of knowledge, especially of knowledge of how to hunt and to fish.  Your man here has value."

A murmur rolled through the crowd, surprise and caution warring in their voices at her words.  Drake's expression was no less shocked that she would speak up for him.

"And yet, the law is clear."  Roan's voice sounded coldly in the room.

"But the insult was to me," Raven argued formally, as they had scripted this morning.  "I can surely forgive it.  If I can forgive the Azgeda for their attack on the Mountain, the attack only I and my mentor survived, then perhaps the Azgeda can forgive their own."  

Honestly, she hated having to say that.  She didn't _really_ forgive the Azgeda.  When Roan had insisted on this language for her speech, she'd balked, until he'd told that all those who had been a part of that attack were dead.  His mother, the assassin, and the one who lured Bellamy and the others away.  It didn't feel like justice, and Raven knew that there were plenty of people left here who agreed with the Queen's decision even if most did not.  

Still, with no one left to punish, no one left to blame, she wasn't sure what holding onto her anger would get her.  It wouldn't bring them back, that's for sure, but strengthening the alliance with Azgeda would save lives in the future.

Roan gave her a deceptively lazy look, while the crowd seemingly held their breath.  Apparently, mercy was a rare thing here in Tombom.  "This man has sacrificed his life in order to disobey.  What would you give to save it?"

"It is his knowledge I wish to save, for the Azgeda, who need the bounty of the waters to get through their winters.  So I will give some knowledge to the Azgeda."  She motioned Ike, the youngest of her trainees, forward.  "Now," she ordered.

The tow-haired boy walked over to a board they'd hung on the wall, the master control for the four solar panels she'd installed on the top of the palace with their help beginning last night and continuing today.  They wouldn't be fully charged as yet, but they would have enough energy for this evening's display.  

Ike flipped the switched and the Great Room filled with light from the bulbs they had also strung up.  They'd found a cache of them in the Ex Mecha warehouse, along with six salvageable panels and the equipment for her to make up at least eight, possibly nine more.  As she surveyed their work, she took in the faces in the crowd, who gazed up in disbelief.  She didn't think it was the light itself, but the amount of it that had them wondering and gasping.  

"Light without fire," she announced.  "With the right bulbs, and the right building, you can even grow crops throughout the year, in deepest winter."

"How?" demanded the Master Farmer, pushing forward to stand in front of the crowd.  Kahti wasn't tall but she carried herself as if she towered over others, a sepia-color woman whose weathered skin spoke of many hours outside and whose tightly-curled hair was bound up in three thick braids.  

Raven liked her a lot.  Although skeptical of Raven's new fertilizer, she'd agreed to spread it over several fields, as a test.  She was cautious, but reasonable.

"When we lived in the sky, in space, we used a method of farming called vertical farming because we didn't have much space and even less soil," she described.  Raven explained briefly the set-up, finishing with, "With the right building, and the right lights, you can grow food year round.  I can train mechanics here to keep that building going.  Even in the summer, you can grow more in columns than you can flat on the ground."

The farmer stepped closer, wanting more information, but Roan forestalled her with a gesture.  "To judge from your response, there is great value in this knowledge from Skaikru."

Kahti nodded, eyeing Raven carefully.  "I would need to speak with the mechanic, but I think so."

"And you, what is required for this?" Roan asked Raven herself.

"More lights, more panels, more tools for both.  A building of sufficient size," she detailed.

Roan seemed to consider her, then the man who still kneeled in front of him.  "The ability to grow more food, and even food through the winter, is great knowledge indeed. But I cannot allow this man to defy orders without punishment."

The room fell silent again as the King rose.  "Drake, you are stripped of your rank as Master Fisher.  Your food portion will be cut, to half.  If you eat more, it will be by the generosity of others."  He motioned to the guards, one of whom gripped the man's hair to pull back his head while the other pulled out a knife.

Raven started, only to restrain herself.  Roan had just declared the man wouldn't have to die.  There was no way he'd be slaughtered now.

Still, she watched with wide eyes as the guard put the knife to a mark on Drake's neck.  Next to crude fish design - an ichthys, something told her, likely another ALIE remnant - was the one that Roan wore on either side of his face, that she even wore on her arm.  With three quick movements, this mark became disfigured, nearly unrecognizable under the cuts.  

Raven thought the breath might have been stolen from her body as she finally realized the mark signified status.  Specifically, the highest status.  Drake, a fisher, had the mark by a fish, to show him to be the Master Fisher.  An appraising look at the other Masters of Trade showed they each bore the mark, next to another that announced their trade.  The only person who wore the mark without a modifier was Roan himself, who bore two.

Well, and Raven.

She swallowed as Drake was released and he lurched to his feet.  "Thank you, my King," he bit out.

"It is not me you should thank.  Without the mercy of Raven, your life would be forfeit."

The former Master's eyes slipped toward Raven and he bowed his head.  "My lady."

Raven gave him a slight nod, then watched as he sagged into the arms of his wife, his daughter hugging his legs tightly.  When she turned, she found that Roan was looking at her.  

"You said you need more supplies," he told her.

"I do," she confirmed, pulling her mind back to the here and now, hoping she'd dangled the right bait in front of him.  He only knew she had promised a display, and at first, she meant only to show them the lights.  But then she'd decided now was the time to talk about the vertical farming, in the hopes it would lead them here.

Roan gestured to the assembled captains.  "Each of you is to send a rider to look for the sign of Raven's people, the Mecha."  With a finger, he outlined the hexagon shape.  "Find more of these places where they stored their goods.  We must have what they have built."

Bingo.

"Can you begin anything now?" Roan asked her directly.

Raven looked at Kahti, and offered, "Tomorrow morning, I can outline what is needed and we can see if there's anything to be done with the materials on hand."

The farmer nodded quickly.  "I wake before the sun.  I will meet you at dawn here."

Roan dismissed the assembly soon after and Raven moved to head to her workshop, to figure out what she could spare for the farming project.  She expected to have to mill around as the crowd filed out, but instead, they immediately parted for her.  

Again, she thought of that mark on her arm.  Had she marked herself as royalty?  Would he have really let her?

She mulled over this the entire walk back to her workshop, her trainees following in her wake.  They spoke excitedly, proud and happy that their work led to such an ending, and in front of Azgeda's most important people as well.

"And you are sure to receive gifts soon too!" Reesa said, only for Raven to realize that she was the target of that comment.

"What?" she asked, confused, glancing over her shoulder.

"Gifts!  Most Masters of Trade receive gifts from families when the children are to be selected, to encourage them."

Raven blinked, then snorted.  "I like getting presents as much as the next person, but nothing would make me pick a kid who I don't think wouldn't make a decent mechanic."

And yet, she knew that wasn't quite true.  If there were children left over after the selection, she knew she'd pick the rest of them.  To give them a chance, at least, at a trade, so they didn't have to worry and wonder how they were going to survive.  Everyone deserved a chance.

As she gained sight of the workshop, she noticed right away the guards by the door.  Although used to her own, even though there were more of them as of yesterday, the workshop itself did not have assigned guards.   "What's going on here?" she asked Werk, who, as always, was close by.

The big man did not look her way as he answered.  "The King has ordered guards for your 'workshop' and your rooms."  He always said the word workshop oddly, unused to it.

Raven blinked.  "Thieves?" she wondered.

"No," he responded shortly, his tone indicating he wasn't going to elaborate further.

Instantly, she grasped that the King didn't have faith that their little show today would convince all the doubters.  She snorted, then marched into her shop, annoyed that he hadn't even mentioned to her the additional guards.  She knew he was holding information back from her, just like she was holding back on him, but she felt that they'd also begun to trust each other.  This told her he wasn't yet in the habit of giving her information, since he gained nothing by failing to tell her about something she would be able to observe with her own eyes.

Well aware of what materials she had on hand for the farming project, she had the kids pull the few pieces that she needed for a mock-up.  Once completed, she dismissed them for the day, only for Reesa and Arris to linger. She looked askance at them until the boy spoke up, nudged by the girl.

"Thank you, for speaking for Drake."

Raven cocked her head, mindful of his tone.  "Why do you thank me?"

Arris gave a tight nod.  "Drake is my father's brother."

"Why didn't you say something?" Raven asked, horrified.  "No one told me he was your uncle, not when you were brought to me, not when we were on the beach."

The tall, thin-faced boy who could've been Murphy's dark-haired brother just shrugged.  "I didn't think you'd care, my lady," he admitted.

"Because I'm Skaikru?" she demanded hotly.

"Because you are Master of your own Trade," he explained, glancing at Reesa as if she could help.

"All the Masters, they argue, fight for the children for their Trades, or items they need," the girl chimed in.  "They rarely help one another without something in return."

"I'm not a Ma-" Raven cut herself off, remembering the mark on her arm, the way Drake's had been disfigured to signal his demotion.  She wondered what the mark for Mechanic would be, gaze darting to the Ex Mecha logo.  They would probably choose a symbol with which they were already familiar.

Touching the still-forming scar on her arm, she asked, "So you saw this mark and thought I wouldn't help the Master of another Trade?"

Arris nodded quickly.

"I told him you would," Reesa added smugly.  "He thought you were a Master, but I know Skaikru doesn't use our marks.  That's the King's mark and he wears her mark."

The boy flushed, about to retort angrily when Raven held up her hand.  "The two of you, go.  I will see you tomorrow morning, dawn," she reminded them.  They moved off, still bickering and she watched them walk out of earshot before she closed the door to the workshop.

Raven hurried over to the radio set, sitting on the stool in front of it, and opened the channel to Arkadia, sending her signal to indicate she had information.  They'd agreed on three different signals, one to note she needed to talk, a second to indicate she was fine but had no reason to talk, and a third to indicate an emergency.  She double-checked the volume on the set, to make sure no one outside of five feet from the radio would be able to hear.

Raven hadn't told Roan she had a working radio.  In fact, they'd had gone to great lengths before she'd even left with him to make sure he overheard how she would be out of radio range if she went deep into Azgeda territory.  At the time, it had been more hope than anything else that she'd be able to cobble a transmitter powerful enough together, but with the extra information ALIE had given her, Raven had been confident even if Monty hadn't been.  

Within a minute, a voice she recognized replied.  "Good to hear from you."

"Bryan," she greeted with a slight smile.  "I was expecting Monty."

"Switched shifts.  Harper's schedule changed and he wanted some time with her."  Bryan sounded amused.  

"Like you haven't done the same with Miller."

"Can't dispute that," he confirmed.  "What's the update?"

"They're going to look for more Ex Mecha warehouses," she reported, eyeing the door to make sure no one came too close.  "I'll use some of what they find to set up some vertical farming for them, probably more lights too."

When Roan revealed that he needed to display his kingliness, she'd immediately thought of introducing the lights and, then, the vertical farming.  In her discussions with Clarke over the radio, she'd learned that Arkadia needed more panels, generators, and especially the medkits that Ex Mecha had manufactured in the last century.  Raven had been trying to think of a way to suggest they look for more warehouses without tipping her hand as to what would be really valuable for Arkadia.  But if he was searching for them for Azgeda's purposes, she could easily declare certain things as junk and then suggest they go back with her to Arkadia as raw materials.  The cost to Arkadia would be far lower than if Roan knew their true value.

"Understood."

"Any news for me?  Besides Monty and Harper still going strong?"

He chuckled.  "Yeah, you could say that.  Uh, one of the other clans here, the Glowing Forest, they have a lot of food to trade.  They are finished with the coalition, but want an alliance with us."

"Sounds good.  But I'm sensing there's a problem," Raven described dryly.

"They want an alliance 'in the old way'.  They wanted 'Wanheda' to marry the son of their Heda and Bellamy to marry her daughter, to go live with them."

Raven burst out laughing, though she clapped a hand over her mouth quickly to prevent any of the guards from growing curious at the noise.  "I'm guessing that didn't go over well."  She didn't think the Council would stand for a marriage alliance, but especially not one that sent Bellamy away and both Clarke and he into a stranger's bed.

"You should've seen it.  Before the Council even met to discuss it, Clarke tells the clan, 'I am Wanheda, Commander of Death.  Everyone I have ever bedded dies...save Bellamy.  He stays.'"

"What?!"  She sat forward, as if being closer to the radio would let her see Bryan's expression.  "Are they…?"

"No one knew anything about it, so I doubt it!   And we've been watching, there's a pool and everything."

"Well, Roan thinks they're together.  Calls Bellamy Clarke's Chosen and vice versa."

"Then he won't be surprised at his invitation to their wedding.  The Council is proposing a United Nations style alliance and they're inviting all the Clan leaders or their ambassadors to Clarke's wedding as a gesture."

"They're getting _married_?"  

"Yeah, it was the only way to convince the Glowing folks that Clarke wouldn't marry one of them."

 Raven mused on the possibility of Roan actually going to a conclave when the situation at Tombom was still volatile.  It was far more likely he'd send an ambassador.  And if he didn't attend himself, she wasn't likely to go either.

"I don't know that he'll go...or that he'll let me go."

A telltale silence descended before he asked warily, "Are you a prisoner?"

"Well, no.  I just haven't asked to go anywhere in particular."  She glanced at the doorway, knowing there were guards just beyond.  "He's worried about my safety though.  I always have guards with me.  I know that sounds bad, but I promise, they treat me well here.  I have all the best food, a really comfortable bed, a huge room.  I get a bath almost everyday.  With hot water even.  It's more about manpower."

If they were looking for the warehouses, setting up new farming techniques, Raven didn't think that he'd have the men to spare to escort her back and forth.  Which is the plan, to keep the Azgeda too busy to be a threat.

"Plus," she continued as she warmed to the subject.  "The people here, a lot of them seem to like me.  And I don't know how popular the old Queen was, based on what I've been hearing.  Even the King pretty much hated his mother."  She knew that feeling well.  "They're not the monsters Trikru says they are.  They have an organized army, a standing army, yeah, but not monsters."

After a pause, she added more quietly, "They didn't want to kill the kids.  But I've seen what happens here when someone disobeys the monarch.  It's not pretty.  It's not an excuse, just...you know."

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you sounded like you're enjoying your Grounder visit," Bryan bit out.  

"I was there, Raven, I _saw_ what they did.  I don't care what they _told_ you.  And you saw what they did at the Mountain.  They treat you nice, sure, you've got something they want and they can't just force it out of you.  They wouldn't be so nice if force was an option, believe me."

Raven sucked in a breath as he finished, "Maybe you should remember that you're an Arkadian, not Azgeda," he admonished before the channel clicked.  

She glanced down at the clothing she wore, knowing that Bregga would be filling her bath soon, and that her favorite was being prepared for dinner.  Most of all, she recalled being in Roan's bed, enjoying the play of his lips and his tongue, the feel of him moving within her, the cries she hadn't bothered to muffle just the other day.

Perhaps Bryan was right.  Perhaps she was beginning to enjoy living here a little too much.

* * *

Raven did not appear for dinner, a fact Roan knew those in the Great Room attributed to her desire to begin work immediately.  Her weeks in Tombom had given her a reputation for hard work, a trait admired among the Azgeda.  Now, after the gift of the lights, even those angry at the Skaikru woman sporting the mark of leadership seemed to accept that, at least in her own trade, she seemed to be deserving.  

At least, that was the gist of the conversation he'd overheard between some of the Masters on his own way out of the Great Room.  Her display had worked very well, quelling the immediate threat of a rebellion.  The value of a Skaikru mechanic was now clear to all, not just him, and would be reinforced if Kahti approved of her new farming technique.  The farmer, a force among the Masters, had always been reasonable and if she was convinced, he was confident the rest of the Masters would fall in line.

Especially because Raven had also spared the life of the man who most openly defied her. Roan was bound to follow the laws, but Raven could still maneuver in ways he could not, and this evening's work sounded clearly to those of her rank.  Very few of the Masters would have that kind of mercy for another, competitive as they were.  That she spared him signaled to them that she didn't consider the man, or his people, a threat in any way.  

It had all gone so well.  He had even secured her open forgiveness for Azgeda's attack on the Mountain and gotten her to reveal yet more of the technological secrets that made her so valuable.  Raven left the hall with that determined gleam in her eye and he expected to welcome a very smug mechanic into his bed that night.

Instead, she hadn't even shown for dinner.  Roan immediately sent for Bregga, who assured him that the woman had returned but to her room.  Raven sent her handwoman away with a curt word, declining the food offered to her with a sharp word.

Bregga, untrained in any trade and barely able to defend herself as an Azgeda, stood in misery as she told him what had transpired with the mechanic. The woman was always afraid of being sent away, so he told her to bring the rarely used crown and the ceremonial pike, the one supposedly used by Darron himself, to his rooms and then return to Raven in the morning.

Mindful of Raven's pleased state when she left him yesterday, he strode to her rooms and wondered what had changed since their triumph that afternoon.  She enjoyed herself quite a bit yesterday and he intended to repeat the performance as frequently as possible.  He intended Raven to become Azgeda and his Queen, formally, the sooner the better, and he remained convinced that the need to secure a future for her child would do it.  

Roan nodded to the guards at her door, dismissing them with a wave, since his own were with him to provide protection.  He then walked into her rooms without announcing himself.  As she had done.

Raven, seated at the table near the center of her room, aimed a glare in his direction as soon he entered.  Clearly, he had interrupted her work on the brace she normally wore, which currently sat on the table in front of her.  

"I don't want visitors.  I'm busy," she snapped at him.

Hardly the greeting he expected and so he returned her peevishness without thought.  "I haven't come for a visit, but if you're no longer interested, I'll leave."

Raven snorted, shaking her head.  "So you're here for a booty call.  Typical."  But she didn't tell him to go.

He waited until she bent her head over her work before he spoke again, ignoring the words he hadn't quite understood.  She'd made the dismissal plain enough.  "Did someone offer you insult?" he wondered.

"Please, who would dare after all that?  I don't think they're going to risk I'll ask mercy for them too."

"But something has happened."

Raven sucked in a breath and expelled it slowly, hands still working on her brace.  "I need to remember that I'm an Arkadian.  I can't get used to the way things are here and I am, and it needs to stop.  We don't have rank or privilege like this in Arkadia."

"We will not stop treating you as you deserve to be treated," Roan immediately declared.  "That Skaikru doesn't treat you as well as we do is their failing, not ours," he continued as he walked over to her.  "You have told me yourself, there are classes among Skaikru.  Clarke was born into leadership."

"Look, we might have had classes, but things are changing, with Clarke and Bellamy in charge."  She stopped then, as if trying not to reveal something.  

Raven didn't trust him completely.  Perhaps she had begun to recognize the signs that he was wooing her to stay for longer than needed to train the children.  So he didn't press her yet, allowed her this secret for now.  Better to focus her attention on the good of living here.

"Things are changing here," Roan told her, with the confidence of knowing it was true.  He introduced the trade of Mechanic to his people and was in the process of securing them a Master Mechanic, as well as a Queen for himself.  Someone who understood the world as it was and would be, a person whose counsel he could actually use.  

"You're the King.  Your word is law.  Don't tell me you're changing that, after what I saw today.  Because that's the kind of change Arkadia is going through now.  A new kind of leadership."

"My people aren't ready for a new kind of leadership.  They didn't even want the Commander, once my mother was forced to bend knee to Lexa."  Roan eased into one of the other chairs at her table, keeping his gaze direct.

"Forced?" she asked pointedly, finally meeting his eyes again.

Roan smiled without humor.  "Against the combined army of the Coalition, war on all fronts, we faced a long, protracted war.  Even if we had won, the blood spilled would cripple our defenses for a generation.  So my mother made a deal and we joined the Coalition, all the while

planning on killing the Commander and replacing her with an Azgeda Nightblood who would be loyal to us."

"And you agreed with this plan."  She wasn't asking him a question.

"I took the plan once I took the throne, yes, but it was not my plan.  My mother found Ontari over ten years ago, just before we joined the Coalition."

She watched him warily, as if trying to figure out a deception.  "You were banished, by Lexa.  Why?"

Roan snorted.  "It was not enough for Azgeda to join the Coalition.  We had to...worship the Commander, like the other Clans.  But that would never happen with our Queen, our way of life.  So she sent a message to my mother, one that insulted her.  My mother beheaded the messenger, sent the head back to Lexa.  She did not know it was Lexa's Chosen, nor that the Commander's armies were ready to strike, just for her head in return."  

He shook his head at the memory.  "Our people would have risen up to protect their Queen, as they had been trained, and war would have erased a generation of our people.  Our way of life would be over; we would be just another Coalition clan.  So I offered Lexa a deal.  Spare my mother and banish me as punishment for her insolence.  The objective would be the same - to break the line of kings - but her people would not risk their lives on a campaign into our territory.  She accepted, and I was banished.

"I always thought I would be able to return one day.  Either my mother would be successful in her plot, or Lexa would die and I could make a new deal with the new Commander. Instead, she sought me out, to bring her Wanheda and promised me an end to my banishment if I did.  But she refused to honor the deal.  She couldn't allow the line to continue.  It was only when my mother's threat to her reign became clear that she decided to exchange one monarch for another.  Perhaps she thought I would be more amenable to her rule."

As he spoke, Raven's expression darkened as she clearly mused over the Commander's actions.  So he was not surprised when she spoke in a tone laced with bitterness.  "Lexa refusing to honor a deal?  Misjudging someone?  Yeah, sounds like her."

"Azgeda and Skaikru.  We alone don't mourn the Commander," he seized upon the similarity.  "We see the value in a coalition, of sorts, but not the Commander, not her way of doing things.  We can be powerful allies for each other, keeping the other clans at bay.  That's what I want.  Not just the trade agreement we have now.

"Azgeda's future is the same as Skaikru.  You will learn to live on the ground, we will learn the secrets of your technology.  Better healers, and now, mechanics," he explained, motioning to her.  "The other clans won't be able to touch us."

"Why are you so dismissive of the other clans?  Just because they don't have technology?"

"The other Clans, they operate in the darkness, scrabbling out an existence.  Skaikru, Azgedakru...we could _live_ , not just survive."

"What is living on the ground?  What are you people if you're not 'scrabbling out an existence' and fighting the other clans for power and territory?" Raven asked acidly.

Roan shook his head, wondering at her sudden pique.  "How can you ask that?  You've seen how we live.  How we celebrate, how our children play.  The meals, the songs, the way Azgeda works together so that we all thrive," he chided her, watching her look away because she knew his words to be true.

Raven had seen all those things and more in her time with them.  He knew she'd become quite fond of Arde and his daughter, that she protected "her children," even had her eye on a decorative piece that one of the smiths was crafting in his spare time.  Werk reported to him that every time she went through the market, her gaze would linger on the twists of metal.

"I know Clarke wants a real alliance too.  That's all we've ever wanted on the ground, someone who would live up to their word," Raven admitted quietly.  Redirecting her thoughts to the children had worked to dispel some of her bad mood.

"I do not speak lightly," he confirmed.  Not once in his thirty-two years had he broken his word.

Her dark eyes met his own again as she took a deep breath.  "And if something happens to you?  Will the next King honor the alliance?"

Roan's mouth curled in a satisfied smile.  "I think you'll be most pleased by my heir.  He will honor the alliance."

She scoffed.  "You can't know that.  Lexa thought her heir would honor the alliance between the Coalition and us, and instead it was Ontari who immediately threw out the Skaikru.  Well, except Murphy.  Guy has a way of surviving, like a cockroach," she ended with a grumble, though one without malice.

"I know Murphy."  Raven gave him a startled look, one that relaxed into understanding.  "He's clever.  If he had been born Azgeda, he'd have been taken by the Army for the scouts or by the healers.  Both need people who can think quickly."

Raven continued to work on her brace for a moment, then pushed it away.  Her chin came up and she asked, "Want to sleep with me?  I'm done with thinking for today."

He smirked, well-pleased with her directness.  "I do," he confirmed, rising and moving over to her side of the table to draw her up into his arms.  She looped her arms around his neck loosely before she pressed her lips to his in a demanding kiss.

This was the evening he had expected, her tongue sliding into his mouth, her body moving against his own as he savored the very taste of her.  When she pulled away only to survey him with a heated look with her ever-darkening eyes, her lips bruised with his kiss, he knew he'd take this woman to bed even if he hadn't been trying to get her with child.

Her gaze drifted slowly over his body, even as her hands smoothed down his arms and then made their way back up his chest.  One paused by his medallion, her brow furrowing and soon, to his chagrin, the all the heat between them seemed to dissipate at once as she became entranced.  Carefully, she lifted the piece, her mouth opening slightly.  

"Roan?" she asked, in a strangled voice.  "What is this?"

"A token from Darron himself.  A symbol of my line, of my birthright," he explained, frowning.  To many, the object fascinated, a relic of the time before the Great Fire, but he didn't expect it of Raven, or any Skaikru.  

"No," she breathed.  "I don't think it is."

"What?" he asked sharply, then watched in complete astonishment as she used both hands to pull on the corners of the medallion, which seemed to break into three clean pieces with each one having a rectangular but smooth piece of metal jutting out.

"This is a _drive_ ," she told him excitedly, eyes darting to meet his own.  "Three of them!  It's..we put knowledge in these things.  Skaikru, but also before, before the Great Fire.  This is information!" she tried to explain, beginning to pull out of his arms.

He grabbed at her hips to prevent her.  "Where are you going?"

"I have a computer, a...machine...that could read this information," she revealed.  "If this was important to Darron, something he tried to keep through the Fire and the Ice, that he passed down, then we could learn something from this."

"The knowledge of Darron himself?" he asked, seizing on her words.  "I..my people have been wearing knowledge?"  He hardly believed it possible.

"Well, yeah, maybe.  I don't know.  For all I know it's just pictures or a sentimental token.  But we can find out, assuming the drive itself isn't too damaged or degraded."  Raven slipped from his grasp, only to pull her brace from the table and sit down roughly so she could strap it to her leg.

She looked up with him, her face a mask of excitement.  "Maybe we'll get lucky and it'll show us where they put emergency supplies," she speculated.

Roan's eyes drifted back to the pieces of his medallion in his hand, still not quite believing that his line had been wearing a record of Darron's knowledge.  If Raven was to be believed.  Her demeanor suggested that she believed it.

"Show me," he commanded, and for once, she just nodded at him.

Carefully, he placed each of the three pieces into a pocket in his pants, then waited for her to stand and follow him out of her rooms.

They didn't speak on the slow walk to her workshop, each lost in their own thoughts.  Roan could only imagine what she was thinking, but he was consumed with the idea that he could see something of the legendary Darron.  Some bit of wisdom forgotten, something to help the Azgeda, perhaps even more than an alliance with Skaikru.

As he watched Raven hurry along, he realized that even if the "drive," as she called it, revealed something that would make an alliance with Skaikru useless, he would still want to keep Raven as his Queen.  Not only would she be the only one who could access the information, she would be the perfect teacher for their children.  This was knowledge only the King  and his heirs should have.

When they reached her work area, his guards waited outside, and she waved him to a stool by a high table, filled with equipment, a dark panel of some kind, and various other items he knew only Skaikru and their mechanics could manipulate.  For now.  Raven sat herself onto another stool, after pulling it close to the table and then held out her hand for the pieces of his medallion.

Roan placed them in her hand, watched as she selected one and put the metal portion into a rectangular item decorated with letters and numbers.  He silently recalled the day she found out he could read and write, how shocked she had been.  While it was true not many Azgeda knew these things - they did not bother to teach those who could not grasp the ideas quickly - enough remained of the world before that the writings they had left, on signs, on buildings, on ruins, helped guide them now.

Raven pressed something and one of the panels came to life with tiny pictures.   He observed as her fingers settled on the letters, her thumb on a larger, grey rectangle, then begin to move them as a soft clack-clack sounded in the room.  The panel light up with a black box, then a series of letters and numbers appeared, nearly incomprehensible to him.

"This is code.  It's a different kind of language," she explained curtly, eyes rooted to the task at hand.  It was the last thing she said for long moments, and he thought she had forgotten him until she said, "This is password protected.  I'm going to break into it, shouldn't be too long."

He didn't understand that at all.  "You need to break it?"

"No, not..I'm just going to do this, just sit and wait, okay?"  She was annoyed, and not wanting to distract her, he sat back and watched.

"Got it!" she declared a short time later, then tapped at the box until yet another set of letters and numbers appeared on the lighted panel.  She frowned, leaning forward, silently studying for what seemed like a long time.

"Is it...code?" he finally wondered.  It seemed very similiar to him.

"No.  I think it's data.  It's all data, raw data.  I think medical data, maybe?  I don't know.  Maybe experiments?"  Raven shook her head.  "Metabolic rates, glucose counts...it's medical data of some kind.  Nothing useful."  

She repeated the entire process with the second piece, but with a much different result.  "Ah ha!" she cried, grinning as her fingers moved quickly.  "We've got picture files, video files, music files.  I think this was his entertainment stuff.  I recognize some of these things, stuff we had in the database in the Ark.  But some of these I don't recognize, they seem like personal files. "

"Pictures?" he asked, moving to stand behind her.  "Show me," he demanded.

"Alright, alright, here we go."  But she paused, turning to look over her shoulder at him.  "These are going to be really...vivid.  Just warning you."

She did...something and then the panel showed a strange-looking metal piece, a structure, jutting out of the ground and pointing to the sky.  There were people, dressed in clothing not too dissimilar from the clothing they still occasionally found foraging in ruins, but the structure was the focus.

"Is this a defense tower?" he questioned.

"Oh, no, that's the I-fell Tower.  It's...in a land across the sea.  If it still exists, that is.  It's a famous piece of art, really," Raven explained, her tone somewhat dismissive.

"Your people built a tower just to look at?" he asked incredulously.  He couldn't imagine wasting those kind of resources, all that metal, just on piece that was meant to be viewed.

"Not my people, but yeah, sort of?  It was done as an...kind of a show-off piece, to say, look what we can do."  Raven shook her head.  "Let's look at something else."

The picture of the tower went away as another took its place.  This one was an image of two boys, barechested, but standing in a pool of some of the cleanest looking water he had ever seen.  A triangle on its side hovered over them, but a moment later, after Raven again did something, the triangle disappeared and the images began to move.

Roan started, grabbing at her shoulder, even though he dimly recalled being taught that once, before the Great Fire, his people were capable of making pictures that looked exactly like what was, that moved and spoke just like people had done.  He watched with fascination as the two boys splashed in the water, swimming some, but mostly just playing.  

"Whoa there," Raven warned, continuing to tap until sound seeming to match the boys' movements echoed through the shop.  They were laughing and screeching, like any two boys would be when playing.  Then he heard a woman's voice call out, "Chris, Darren, let's see you race!"

Roan's mouth dropped open.  "Darren," he repeated.  His ancestor, as a boy.  He wondered which one he was.  Abruptly, the images and sounds stopped and he squeezed her shoulder.

"What happened?" he demanded.

"The video ended," she told him.  "Let me open another one for you."

Again, that soft clicking sound and then an image of two men, their faces somewhat recognizable as the boys in the previous video.  The images began to move, and one, the taller man with slightly darker brown hair spoke.  He had his arm around the shoulders of the other man as he said, "So, Chris, what's it like being one of the men selected for a three year mission on the station?"  

Darron.  That man was Darron.  The First King.  The man who saved the Azgeda.  Who taught them how to live, how to survive.  Who gave them the rules that would make them the most powerful of clans.  Roan could hardly believe what he was seeing.

The other man, Chris, then spoke.  "I don't know, what's it like being the chief resident at Dauphin Heart and Lung?"

"Pretty damn good.  Maybe, one day, when you grow up, you can be like me," Darron replied with a laugh.  

Roan watched the men, clearly brothers, tease each other.  Like any men, any brothers would.  These images also stopped far too soon, but afterwards, Raven turned to face him.  

"It sounds like your king, he was a doctor, a healer," she informed him.

His brow furrowed. "They did not say that."

"Yes, that's what 'resident' means.  A kind of doctor, a...rank of healer," she seized upon an explanation.

"A...chief...healer?"

"Yeah, sounds like."  Raven offered him a slight smile.  "Like Clarke."

He looked at her sharply.

"Clarke's training is as a doctor, not a warrior."

Roan shook his head.  Odd, that two healers should become leaders.  "Show me another," he directed instead.

"Let's see what's on the third drive first.  I mean, this stuff is fascinating, I know, but it's just either entertainment or little videos about them goofing around.  Let's see if there's something useful on the third one and if not, we'll go back.  Sound good?" she offered, reaching up to put her hands on his cheeks and pull his gaze back to her own.

She was right.  Time enough to gawk at such things later.  

Roan gave her a sharp nod.  "Yes.  Do it."

Raven turned back around and went through the same motions, exchanging the pieces, "breaking into the drive," and then examining what she found there with a critical eye.

This time, what appeared when she tapped were letters, words even he could read, if not exactly understand.  

Raven did not have his problem, sounding out quickly, "Genetic Drift in Mitochonrdial DNA, by Darren...McIntyre."  She faltered over the last word and a glance at her face revealed she'd gone quite pale.

Raven knew something.  

This time, he would not allow her to keep her secret.  Roan grabbed at her arm, turning her on her stool to face him.  "What do you know?" he asked her sharply.

Raven blinked, surprised, but not fearful.  She hesitated for a long moment before acknowledging quickly, "I..know someone with that name, McIntyre.  My people..your people, before, used a second name to indicate a bloodline."

Darron, of the McIntyre line.  And Raven knew a McIntyre.  Like Darron's brother, who had gone to the station in space, the images said.  Roan's mind grasped the implication immediately, as she had done.

"He had children, this brother to Darron?"

"I guess, yeah."

"And his descendant yet lives."

"Yes."  Raven looked away, clearly loathe to tell him which among Skaikru shared the blood of the King of Azgeda.

Another from the same line, the line of kings.  A person who could be a threat.  His mother would only see that, a threat to be eliminated.

But, this could also be an opportunity.   He need to think of the implications, the ways that were now open to him.  So many possibilities.

Of course, while Roan could plan, he could not decide, not without seeing this other of his line.  Nor could he send for him.  Or her.  It would signal their import before he'd be ready to reveal it.  

No, there was only one solution to this problem.

"We are going to Arkadia.  I would see this McIntyre for myself."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to yell at me on [Tumblr](https://callmehux.tumblr.com/)


	5. Ice Cream

Raven thought the journey to Tombom had been uncomfortable, but it was nothing compared to the ride back to Arcadia in the middle of the summer.  The jarring gait of the horses made her feel every bone in her body.  The sweltering heat made her wonder if she was melting at the same time.  She couldn't drink enough water, couldn't get comfortable enough at night to sleep soundly, couldn't wash away the stink and sweat.  She was an aching pile of gross and it made her short-tempered.

On top of that was the stress of worrying about what his Royalship was up to.  From the moment she'd admitted out that there was someone named McIntyre back at Arkadia, she could tell he'd been plotting something.  And worse, she had no idea what it was, even though they spent the next four days together after she'd discovered the computer drives.  Roan had insisted on going through all the videos to see if there was any useful information.  To his disappointment, and hers, nothing on the drives indicated the location of any supplies.  Which wasn't to say there wasn't anything interesting on the drives.  There was - just nothing that was immediately useful.

Even so, Raven was certain he was up to something, having learned in the last four months, when this whole situation began, that Roan was rarely _not_ up to something.  Her suspicions were confirmed when the very next day after the discovery of the drives she found new orders had been given that she was never to be alone.  She'd no opportunity to warn Arkadia about what they'd found.  So after that fourth day of watching the videos, she'd followed him into his rooms that night and tried to seduce the scheme out of him.

Roan had just laughed at her, supremely unimpressed with her efforts.

_"If I hadn't known better, I would have thought you've never been with a man," he had mocked her, hooking an arm over the back of his chair and eyeing her hand on his thigh._

_"Well, I'm awesome, so pretty much all I've ever had to do is ask if he wants to sleep with me," Raven had retorted, snatching her hand away._  

_He'd grabbed her hand before she could move far, using the leverage to pull her onto his lap.  "That's all you ever have to do with me," he promised before his mouth practically plundered her own._

The sex afterwards _was_ actually quite good, but it hadn't loosened his tongue any. She'd spent two more nights in his bed before they'd left for Arkadia, because, well, she wanted to.  He was good in bed.  The best she'd ever had, honestly, and there never was a point to dragging herself back to her rooms afterwards.

Seven days out from Tombom, they'd run into the Azgedakru messenger Clarke had asked to relay the invitation to her wedding.  Roan had looked so smug as he sent the messenger back to warn Arkadia that the Ice King would be attending, along with Raven, a small retinue, and of course, his guards - nearly one hundred of them.

She forced herself to keep an impassive expression, even though she seethed inwardly, irritated that he'd been right.  She wanted to argue, to tell him that just because she said Clarke and Bellamy weren't together didn't mean she said they never would be.  So she comforted herself with the knowledge that she had heard before he did and rode imperiously past him as their group continued down the remains of the road.

Still, she was more than relieved when they ran into the first patrols from Arkadia, and even more so when they rode up to the gates of the Skaikru city, which had grown significantly since she left.  She wanted to be off the horse for longer than a span of hours and she wanted at least a moment to herself, which hadn't happened since before they'd left Tombom.  For "security reasons," she'd be sharing a tent with the King, if not his bedroll.  Fortunately, Roan had called a halt about three kilometers out, so that they could change into something less stained by weeks of travel, otherwise she'd make an even worse impression on her people when she returned.

Raven knew from her communications with Monty and Bryan that some Grounders had chosen to stay with the Arkadians, to switch clans as it were.  The Arkadians had guns, and special medicine, and most of all understood things that their clans did not.  Others feared them even more, thought they were to blame for ALIE and the fall of the coalition, which is why the walls around the burgeoning city remained high and the gate electrified.    

And also why Clarke had called for a Conclave.  As much as they could, the Arkadians wanted to prevent another war.  Raven doubted Clarke was looking to revive the coalition, but figured she was probably angling for a series of non-aggression treaties and trade agreements.  If nothing else, maybe just agreements with a few select clans, like their tentative alliance with the Azgeda.   Such a strategy, if successful, could lock the area into a relatively peaceful cold war.

Raven shook her head, as if she could physically get these political thoughts out of her head.  The gesture earned her an arched brow from his Kingliness.  Waving away his silent question, she focused her attention on the Arkadian guards who were crowding the platform above the gate.

Bellamy soon came into view, frowning down at the Azgeda throng.  Raven met his gaze, giving him a small nod to assure him she was fine and that she didn't expect a problem from the group.  

Still, it was clear he was pissed at the number of warriors in front of his gate.  "We invited the King of Azgeda, not a detachment of your army.  We said you could bring guards.  Why do you think you need so many?"

Roan smiled.  "Uncertain times.  But they are not my guards.  They are for your mechanic," he answered easily, putting a hand on the neck of his horse to reassure the beast.  "I swore she would be protected and she has been."

"Well, they're not needed to protect her here," Bellamy retorted.

"Naturally, they will camp in the open meadow we saw nearby.  As invited, I, Raven and four guards will accept the hospitality of Arkadia."  Roan spoke as if this was all quite obvious.  He raised a hand and, at his signal, ninety-five of the warriors turned to march back to the meadow in question.

Raven saw a muscle in Bellamy's jaw ripple, but he gave the King a curt nod.  When the bulk of the Azgeda were a hundred yards away from the gate, he ordered it opened.  As they rode through the gate, she watched as he made his way down from the tower to meet them.

When she pulled her horse to a stop and then waited for Roan to help her to the ground, she noticed that a contingent of Arkadian guards had pulled closer.  Doing her best not to spend too much time looking at Harper among them, she resolutely turned towards the King, who was already at her side having easily dismounted on his own.

Only after Roan's hands were on her and she was on the ground did she think about how it would look to the Arkadians.  It was a well-practiced gestured by now, since none but Roan was allowed to touch her by his command.  Given their intimacy, he stood closer than someone else might have, let his hands linger a bit too long.  And it always ended with a prolonged moment of eye contact, as he silently asked if she okay and she either gave him a slight nod or a head shake in reply.

When she eyed the response of the Arkadians, she found more than a few of them frowning, including Bellamy.  He was better than most at reading body language and so he instantly picked up on the dynamic change between Raven and the Azgeda King.  

As Bellamy approached them, his gun lowered to the ground, Roan glanced only briefly at the weapon.  "You've called for the leaders of each of the clans to meet," he noted.  "My guards are here to prevent anyone from doing anything foolish, or when I returned to our lands with the Azgeda you've kept here."

"What?"  Bellamy immediately stopped moving forward.  "We don't have any Azgeda here."

Raven could hear the snorts of at least two of the Arkadians from where she stood, even as she kept her gaze on the King.  Here was his opening gambit, trying to trick them into revealing who the McIntyre among them was.  

Before she could open her mouth to warn them, Roan continued, "You have a McIntyre here and McIntyres are Azgeda."

"What?" Harper blurted out.  "I'm not Azgeda."

Roan gave Raven a look of immense satisfaction and turned his attention to the young woman with a gun, wearing the uniform of the Arkardian guard.  "Are you not descended from Christopher McIntyre?" he asked, ignoring Bellamy's attempt to intervene.

Harper's head came up, even as her expression turned to bewilderment.  "I am.  How did you know that?"

"I remember you.  You are one of the survivors of the Mountain Men.  Strong," Roan complimented her.  "Trained as an Arkadian warrior.  As befits a member of the royal family."  He glanced at Bellamy, then smiled again at Harper.  "I am descended from Darron McIntyre, elder brother to Christopher.  Blood knows its own."

When Harper blanched, Raven knew she recognized the name.  

Bellamy also seemed to see Harper's recognition of the name, but he stepped in, "Just because she might be related to you doesn't mean she's anything but an Arkadian."

"She will return to her homeland, where she will be treated according to her rank," Roan answered easily, clearly believing himself to be the voice of reason in this discussion.

"Maybe this is a conversation best held somewhere else," Abby interrupted.

As focused as she had been on the interplay with Roan, Raven hadn't noticed the doctor come up behind Bellamy.  

Abby placed a restraining hand on his arm, a familiar gesture that made a lot more sense when Raven recalled that Bellamy was soon to be the doctor's son-in-law.

"In fact, why don't we all meet in the conference room in an hour?  That'll give the Azgeda time to settle into their rooms and I can take Raven to medical."  Abby smiled warmly at Raven.  "Just to see how you've been doing all this time," she continued diplomatically, for Roan's benefit.

Roan bristled immediately at the implied insult .  "We have been providing all the care she requires."

"Abby's the healer who taught me the exercises I need to do, and she evaluates me every so often to make sure I'm doing them correctly.  This is pretty normal.  Besides, I wouldn't mind the check-in, after weeks of riding," Raven assured Roan.  She added for Bellamy's benefit, who seemed on the verge of dismissing Azgeda medicine, "Their capital's actually on the grounds of an old hospital and it's very comfortable.  My treatment there has been excellent."

After a heartbeat, in which Roan meet her eyes significantly to confirm that Abby's offer was no slight to his people or their care, he nodded and issued orders to the guards.  Their horses were led away and then the Azgeda contingent followed Miller to their assigned quarters for the duration of their visit.  Before he left, Werk eyed Raven and only made to follow the other Azgeda when she gave him a slight nod.

Once they were out of earshot, Bellamy rounded on her.  "What the hell, Raven?  How could you not warn us that he wanted Harper-"

"Oh, stop.  If I could have warned you, I would have, but I didn't have a chance to use the radio privately since I found out about the connection."

"How did he find out?" Harper asked, having hurried over.  "How does he know that we're related?"

"Long story short, he's got some old drives that have a lot of files on them, including videos the McIntyre brothers made before the bombs went off," Raven explained.  "I accessed the drives, but he was standing over my shoulder the whole time."

"How'd he know there was a McIntyre here?" Bellamy rumbled, staring her down.

She understood his implied question to her loyalty, especially in the wake of his suspicions about her and Roan. Which she understood he'd equate immediately to Octavia's giving Lincoln all sorts of information about them, not to mention helping him escape, before Bellamy trusted him to be an ally.  Despite how that ended up.  Bellamy's first instinct with all Grounders, but especially Azgeda after Mount Weather, was one of mistrust.  

Mistrust that Raven was supposed to share, she reminded herself, at least to Bellamy's mind.  She'd survived the explosion, but she vividly remembered the horror of losing all those people, of losing Gina, to the machinations of the Azgeda.  She, of all people, wasn't supposed to fall prey to their words and certainly not to the seduction of their King.  It's just that, somewhere along the way, she had forgiven the Azgeda for the actions of a few of their people.  

"He spent a lot of time with us when we were fighting ALIE.  I think he remembered dimly that someone here was called McIntyre, but he wasn't sure who."  Raven had been working on that excuse since they left Tombom.

Bellamy's reaction to finding out about her and Roan was about what she expected.  Disappointingly so, to be honest, but that's why she'd had the lie ready to go.  

"I wasn't joking about taking a trip to medical," Abby interrupted, pushing past Bellamy to stand in front of Raven.  A smile appeared on her face and she reached out to hug the mechanic.  "You look good."

Raven accepted the hug with a half-smile.  "Thanks.  They've got more clothing than we do, but our boots are better," she remarked.  "And the food's pretty good."  She eyed Bellamy over Abby's shoulder.  "Congratulations, by the way.  On the nuptials."  She aimed a smile at him.

Bellamy just snorted in response. "I'm going to let the Council know we have to meet now about this new situation."  He aimed another glare at Raven, probably for dropping the situation in his lap without warning, and then stomped away.

"Gee.  He doesn't exactly sound like he's happy to be getting married," Raven remarked as Abby pulled back.

"It's a whole thing," Harper cut in with a dismissive wave in Bellamy's direction.  "They think they're putting on a show for the Grounders, but they're only fooling themselves. Raven...how worried do I have to be about all this?" she asked, brow furrowing.

Now, Raven was not so comfortable with a lie.  "We'll work something out," she promised the other woman, even as Abby started to herd them towards medical.  

"So he's serious about this?  Me being Azgeda?" Harper fretted.

"The line of the King, it's a very big deal to them," Raven admitted, stepping inside the familiar confines of the grounded station once more.  And yet, she noted to herself as her boots sounded on the metal floor, it didn't feel like a homecoming at all.  "And if you're related to him...yeah, you're a big deal."

Before Harper could reply, Monty ran into view, Jasper just a few steps behind him.

"Harper!" Monty cried, rushing over to her side.  "I heard, are you okay?"

While Harper nodded, Raven tried to reassure him.  "Look, we will definitely figure something out.  She's not going to Tombom."

"Damn right she isn't," Monty practically snarled, to Raven's shock.  "She's not going anywhere with those fuckers."

"We're going to settle this before the Conclave," Abby interjected, putting a hand on Monty's shoulder.  "Let's just get to medical so I can give Raven a physical and then we're all going to meet to figure it out.

Raven watched Monty visibly calm himself and nod, even as he reached out and intertwined his fingers with Harper's.  To her, he added, "I'm not going to let them take you."

"Who said I'm going to let them take me," she replied, briefly resting her head against his.  

It was such a warm, intimate gesture, Raven couldn't help but smile.  After everything they had both been through, she was glad they found some happiness here on the ground, in each other.

As the group resumed walking, Jasper fell in step beside her.  

"So, how have you been?" she asked him.  He hadn't seemed to gain any weight since she'd left, but his hair was significantly longer.  

He shrugged his shoulders.  "It's been all ice cream and rainbows," he replied drolly.  At her pointed looked, he added, "I'm okay.  Dealing with it.  Monty helps.  Harper helps.  You know how it is."

It took her a moment before she realized he was referring to Finn.  

Finn.

She hadn't thought about Finn in...at least a month.  

She hadn't even put on the necklace in several weeks, because it kept getting in the way when she was working at Tombom.  The piece was still with her, but she'd stopped wearing it.

"Yeah," she replied dully.  "I know how it is."

With her mind consumed suddenly with Finn, and with the why and how of him slipping out of her daily thoughts, Raven barely put up a fight when Abby put her through her examination paces.  When the doctor declared her to be in the best condition she thought she could be, Raven hardly noticed.

As Raven buckled her brace back on, she was dimly aware that Harper was talking to her.

"What do you think he really wants?"

Raven frowned at her, then realized she was talking about Roan.  "Oh, probably just more stuff from Arkadia.  I think."

"Guns," Bellamy pronounced from his stance near the doorway.  Raven hadn't noticed his return either.

"No, I don't think so," Raven replied with a shake of her head.  "They have a pretty strict division of labor, the Azgeda, but guns would really disrupt that. They are weapons that require minimal training to use and that's too dangerous.  Plus he's aware that guns require ammunition and ammunition isn't something we're making too much more of.  We just don't have the resources. I think he wants more supplies, more things for the mechanics I'm training."

She found herself repeating this theory three more times once she was in the conference room with Abby, Bellamy, Clarke, David and Marcus, along with Harper and Monty.

"But you don't know that's his end game," David stressed.  "That's your supposition."

"Yeah, but-"

"How can you be sure that they're actually related?  That this isn't just some ploy to get more out of us than we want to concede?" Marcus wondered.

"No time," Raven responded as the door opened to admit Roan, honestly relieved that the interrogation was over.  "But I'm sure he'll show you if you ask."

As was typical, even in a room in which he was almost surrounded by the proverbial enemy, Roan strode in as if he owned the place.  He nodded to each of them in turn, pointedly and sarcastically acknowledging Clarke as "Wanheda" but respectfully addressing Harper as, "Your Highness."

"I don't have a title like that," Harper insisted even as they each agreed to sit at the table, Monty glaring at Roan by her side.

"You are a princess of Azgeda, so you do have that title," Roan dismissed her concern.  "I will escort you back to your home."

" _This_ is my home," she stressed.

"We're not about to let you take her," Bellamy began, but Monty soon interrupted him, too eager to let Kane or Abby ask diplomatically for proof.

"How do we even know you're telling the truth?"

Roan's smile was beatific and he turned to Raven.  "You did not tell them?"

"I think they want to see if for themselves and it's not like I have a copy on me," she replied.

He nodded and then dug into a pocket to retrieve one of the drives in his medallion.  He offered it over to Raven who, at Marcus' nod, inserted it into a computer they'll pulled into the room at her request earlier.

She knew that Roan was likely expecting her to play one of the videos of the brothers as men, where they called each other by name.  But she selected another, because she felt the message there would be clearer.

The screen went dark for a moment as she launched the video, and then the haggard face of Darren McIntyre came into view.   Behind him, a damaged tile wall stood, and he himself was clearly dirty and exhausted, nearly beyond the ability to speak.

"My name is Darren McIntyre," he told the camera.  "I'm a doctor at Dauphin Heart and Lung in Pennsylvania in the United States.  I'm making this message in the hopes that some day, someone will find it.  

"It's been thirty-seven days since the bombs went off.  The water supply is poisoned, fire ripped through everything and radiation is killing the rest.  We've gone through emergency supplies and the generators are failing as ash fills the skies and blocks the light.

"We're lost most people in the first two weeks and we don't have enough supplies for us all to make it."  He took a deep breath.  "Yesterday, we killed - I killed - the worst off of us.  Gave them a merciful death to conserve resources.  Now we're huddled in the lowest levels of the hospital, hoping that it'll stay warm enough in these levels so we can survive the nuclear winter.  I don't know that we can but we're going to try.

"If anyone ever sees this, please know we did what we had to do to survive. That I did what they needed to survive. And, if the people on the space stations find this, please let my brother, Chris, Christopher McIntyre, on the American station, let him know I did the best I could."

The video ended and suddenly, no one seemed eager to speak.

Monty found his voice first.  "He killed his own people," he said, voice pained.  "How can you-"

"He did what he had to do to survive," Roan said firmly, icy blue gaze staring at the young man.  "He made the first laws, laws which enabled Azgeda to rise from the Fire and the Ice, and become the strongest, largest clan."  His eyes slid to Harper.  "His last recorded thoughts were of his brother, your ancestor.  You belong with the Azgeda."

"Darron was the first King," Bellamy stated, drawing Roan's attention.  "And you are his direct descendant?"

Roan nodded.  "I am.  From Darron came Roger, from Roger came Sooze, from Sooze came Ilan and Nia.  Ilan died without a child.  Nia is my mother, the former Queen."  Again, he turned towards Harper.  "And you are descended from Chris, are you not?"

She nodded shallowly, though her eyes were only for Monty.  "I am," she admitted, reaching for his hand and giving it a squeeze.

The look of anguish on Monty's face was too much for Raven, who looked away.  God damn Roan, for trying to use Harper.  But then, that was what the King of the Azgeda did, use every tool at his disposal to get something for his people.

"Then there you have it.  She is Azgeda."

"Roan," Clarke began.  "Why don't you give us some time to confer?  Obviously, Harper needs some time to digest this information.  It's not every day one of us finds a relative.  Then we can meet again, perhaps after we've all gotten something to eat."

Raven knew that Roan was going to object, so she jumped into the discussion.  "I think that's a good idea.  I know I'm starving, and I'm sure the guards would like something to eat as well," she suggested to the King as she stood, hoping that he would take her tone as the invitation to speak to her privately she meant it to be.  

Roan looked between her and Clarke and finally nodded.  "In an hour, I will return to discuss Harper's return to her people," he promised, standing and giving the young woman a nod before he exited the room.

Raven watched him go, then looked over at those still there.  "I'll see what I can find out," she promised before she hurried after him.

* * *

 

Roan waited for Raven just a short way down the corridor, Arde and Werk with him.  They didn't speak until he lead her to his assigned quarters.  She stepped inside the small room after him, while the guards waited outside the door.

Looking at the place, one hardly bigger than a generous closet in Tombom, she frowned.   "Not exactly what you are used to," she noted apologetically.  

"I did not come here for comforts," Roan answered, watching her thoughtfully.  "You wished to speak with me."

Raven nodded, turning to face him directly.  "I want to know what the hell you think you're going to accomplish, pulling Harper away from here."

"I needed to know how much, or how little, Skaikru trusts me, trusts in the peace between us.  While they did not deny my claim to her outright, their reaction tells me clearly that something more is needed if we are to have a stable, strong alliance."  Roan knew she was likely to tell this to them, but he'd already learned what he needed to know.

Harper was strong, but she was not a leader.  She had clearly selected her Chosen, the slim one called Monty, and was loathe to leave Arkadia.  Seeing as the alliance between Azgeda and Skaikru needed reinforcement, he would be happy to ceremonially offer Harper for a marriage alliance, in return for some supplies to tide Raven over while his people searched for the Mecha supplies.

But, he mused, she might make an effective go-between as well.  Azgeda blood, but Skaikru raised, married to a Skaikru man.  She might be the ambassador their peoples needed as the face of this alliance.

Raven scoffed at his reply, though.  "There's a difference between having some doubts about an alliance and someone demanding a person be handed over.  I know she's got the same blood you do, but she's Arkadian because she was raised here, with Skaikru.  She's not really Azgeda."

"Of course she is.  Her blood makes her Azgeda.  But they will trust her where they do not trust me," he explained patiently.  "They are even losing their trust in you.  I saw how Bellamy looked at you, wondering at your loyalties by the gate.  What would the rest of them say if they knew you were in my bed?  That you could be carrying my child even now?"

"No, there's no way I'm pregnant.  Can't be," Raven replied off-handedly, which startled him into silence.  "But yeah, I get your point, but if you treat Harper as a princess, they'll think you're wooing her too and why are you looking at me like that?"

The words echoed in his head.   _Can't be._   

"What do you mean, you 'can't be' pregnant?" he asked coolly, keeping a tight rein on his emotions.  

Raven's eyes went wide at his question, seizing on his posture and his tone.  She'd become quite good at reading him, which was both somewhat annoying and very encouraging.  "Wait, did you think….were you _trying_ to get me pregnant?  What, you thought a kid would solve the alliance problem?"  She sounded incredulous.

But he wasn't really listening to her, already trying to comprehend the problem and find a solution.

Raven could not have children.

If Raven could not have children, then he had to secure Harper.  He would probably have to threaten to sever the alliance completely unless she came with them.  At least she was a survivor of the Mountain, something very few Azgeda could claim, and that would go a long way with his people.  And Harper was Skaikru-born and raised, perhaps more likely to produce the kind of heir he wanted and his people needed.  Cunning and strong.

"Or was it something else," Raven was still talking. He could see her thinking furiously and then a realization seemed to dawn in her.  "You wanted to trap me, didn't you?  Separate me from my people, knock me up with a kid so I'd be alienated from them and want to stay with you.  That's what you wanted.  A mechanic for the Azgeda for the rest of my life."  Her outrage was growing by the second.

Roan frowned, then shook his head.  That was the old plan, dead since she had shown him the drives, and already, he was focused on the next.   "I see that it is not necessary now.  But if my Queen cannot produce a child, an heir must be secured from the line of my blood.  That now requires Harper."

Raven stood straighter and she flushed in raw anger.   "So if you can't have me producing babies, Harper'll do?"

It took him several moments to understand what she was asking.  He almost laughed when he figured out what had her so angry.  "She is my family.  Her heir will be my heir, if my chosen Queen, you," he spelled out, hardly believing had to do so to Raven, of all people.  "Cannot give me children."

She blinked, taken aback, apparently not having thought of that answer.  "Why..why even pick me if I can't give you an heir?" she wondered.

"I know you, Raven.  I have fought with you, lived with you, seen you among my people.  I know you would be an excellent Queen, one I could trust.   A Queen who understands that our world is changing and could help me teach our people that.  A Queen who could help make a true alliance between Azgeda and Skaikru."  He paused, then added dryly, "One who thinks before she acts or accuses.  Usually."

Raven sucked in a breath, then sat down heavily on the small platform with a thin blanket he assumed he was meant to use as a bed.  The accommodations of Arkadia left a lot to be desired in comparison to home.  

"Wow.  I feel so….wooed," she told him flatly, he thought in an attempt to cover-up her surprise at his announcement that he wished her for his Queen.

Perhaps he should have spoken to her about this before, but they weren't quite through keeping secrets from each other, he supposed.  That was coming to an end, by necessity.

"We aren't normal people. I'm King, and you're Master Mechanic, soon to be Queen, if you accept and join the Azgeda formally.  People rely on us, need us.  The fact that I love you is irrelevant.  If you were not suited to be Queen, I would not make you my Chosen."

She looked up quickly at his words.  "What?"

"There is a problem, which needs to be fixed and once that is done, I can give you more attention, but right now, securing the succession while maintaining peace is the priority.  What did you think I was discussing?" he asked, exasperated.  Normally, Raven was much quicker.

"I can't give you children but you still want me?" she asked, eyes bright as she waited intently for his answer.

"No one is perfect and I can live without children, so long as I have another heir from my bloodline.  Harper presents that opportunity, though she must have her child at Tombom, the child must be raised in the way of the king.  But my Queen needs to be someone my people can regard and they do regard you, almost as much as I do.  Werk is devoted to you already, I am sure you have noticed.  When I announce you as my Chosen, the woman who brought down the Mountain at Wanheda's command, the woman who is bringing them the way of more food, of light without fire, who willingly teaches her knowledge, the Azgeda will rejoice."

"And you love me?"

Roan paused, wondering how he had missed saying that.  "I do, but love isn't usually a luxury afforded to the King in his Chosen.  I suppose I'm quite lucky in that."  

Raven stared at him.  "You think you're lucky to have me?" she asked, a smile coming to her face finally.

"Have I not just explained that very thing?"

"You have no idea how right you are," she replied, then patted the bed beside her.  "Sit.  I think I have a plan that might get you what you want and get Arkadia what it wants.  A stronger alliance, an heir for you, and-"  She took a breath.  "Me as your Queen."

Roan smiled, savoring the warmth that spread throughout him at her words.  "You agree then, to be my Chosen and my Queen?"

"Yes, though, like I said, I want to work out the specifics.  Sit," she ordered.

And he sat, very curious to hear what his Queen had planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments, questions, etc. are all welcomed. Come yell at me on [Tumblr](https://callmehux.tumblr.com/)  
> .


	6. Everything That's Come Before

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for one more deal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extreme thank you to Nell65, without whom this chapter would be significantly worse.

Raven and Roan walked back into the conference room, only to find the Council, along with Harper and Monty, still there discussing everything they'd learned.  The Arkadians resumed their original seats tensely, with Bellamy and Monty eyeing Roan with open suspicion.  Fortunately, it was Clarke who spoke for the Council.

"Raven said you had an alternate proposal."

"You want peace, and so do I.  We are each other's greatest mutual threat, but if the smaller, weaker Clans ally, they could be threats to us both.  It's in our mutual interest to become full allies instead, to preserve our positions as well as this peace," Roan introduced the subject smoothly.

"That's all well and good," Bellamy rumbled.  "But not at the expense of us giving you our people."

Raven didn't miss the look of exasperation that Clarke shot her her husband-to-be, and for a moment, she was reminded of those first weeks on the ground.  Some things never changed for them.

"You have something I want and I have something you want," Roan acknowledged, as usual  failing to rise to the bait.  "Here is my proposal.." 

To their credit, the Council did an admirable job of controlling their reactions as Roan spoke.  Harper tensed, Monty's eyes narrowed and the two joined hands on the table, but otherwise, the Arkadians betrayed relatively little about their inclination on the subject.

Of course, Raven figured that Kane and Clarke were for the alliance proposal, Abby and Bellamy were against, and David Miller was undecided, torn between the risk and the reward.  Evaluating people, even those she knew personally, was always easier with some knowledge of body language.  Again, sometimes it was useful to have bits of ALIE's data floating in her head.

"I don't have a problem with the deal," Raven announced, pulling focus to herself.  "So take that argument off the table."

"Even so," Kane jumped into the fray before anyone could say anything.  "We need to discuss this, privately, if you don't mind, King Roan."

Roan gave him a wry look, but stood once more.  "I'll expect your answer by sundown," he informed them.  His gaze met Raven's briefly and she gave him a shallow nod before he left, a gesture she could clearly see did not go unnoticed by the others.

Raven knew that despite the tenor of the room, whatever they might be individually thinking, all that was left now was the yelling and eventual acceptance.  Because just like before, Roan and the Azgeda had Arkadians backed into a corner.  For the new peace to hold, the two most powerful krus had to avoid open conflict.  This would be best accomplished by a formal alliance.  And if word got out that the Arkadians had declined such a generous offer, not only would the Azgeda people think of it as an insult, the other Clans would wonder what kind of leaders would refuse such an alliance.

And it wasn't like Arkadia and Azgeda hadn't made a deal before.  She had the scar to prove it, from the blood oath they'd taken in the cave all those months ago that secured Azgeda's army in order to defeat ALIE.  Based on the thunder she heard when she walked back into the conference room, it was even raining again, in a kind of symmetry that Raven didn't want to think about.

Kane outlined the terms.  "So, to review, the Ice King has offered a full alliance with a mutual defense treaty and open trade, with mutual aid in times of crisis to be considered on a case by case request.  The alliance would be sealed with two marriages: Raven to Roan and Harper to Monty.  Raven would become officially Azgeda and Harper would be declared Arkadian.  Harper would become the official liaison between our peoples."  

Bellamy started off. "No.  He doesn't get to keep our best mechanic for the rest of her life, no matter how much you like him," he added to Raven directly, ignoring Clarke's restraining hand on his arm.  "We've seen that the Grounders will revolt against their leaders when they don't like the changes they're making.  Even if we decide we trust Roan, that doesn't mean all of Azgeda will fall into line."

Raven nodded at him, to show that she took his concerns seriously.  "You've got the man who trained me, here, and other mechanics.  Yeah, no one's as good, but you have way more trained mechanics.  They've got to deal with a bunch of kids who don't have our educational background, so I think Arkadia's still getting the better part of that deal, talentwise.

"As for revolution or disobedience."  She shook her head.  "You know, Lexa was a central authority, but she was half-conqueror. Or the Commander was, whoever the Commander was at the time. The Clans, they could go back to their own territory and plot against her if they wanted.  What she offered them was clear rules and the ability to stand against people like the Azgeda.  Then she started changing the rules on them and they didn't know what to do.

"On the other hand, you have Azgeda," she continued, when Bellamy looked to interrupt.  "Azgeda has a clear set of rules too.  You work, you get food, water and shelter.  You aren't useful?  You're out.  They teach complete obedience to the King, starting from when the kids are little.  They have school, for lack of a better word.  They are taught from a very early age that the Throne knows what's best and you have to do what the Throne says.  If you don't, you'll be killed.  Exiled at best, but I think they lean towards killing now because exile isn't quite the death sentence it was."

Raven explained to them the incident with Drake, how he was only alive because of her intervention.  "And he didn't even hit me.  Just looked like he was going to do it.  Worse, he was was trying to countermand Roan's order to listen to what I had to say about the machine.  No one spoke for him.  Not even his family, though they were angry.  Because that's the way it is there.  There's not going to be a revolt because Roan's not changing the rules on them.  He's just opened more trade and wants to take a foreign wife, except I won't be foreign because I'll become Azgeda."  She shook her head.  "I won't be the first person to become Azgeda, either.  There are a lot of people I've met at Tombom who were born something else.  His head guard, Arde?  His wife was Trikru once."

She smiled, gaze drifting as she remembered how the lights affected the crowd when she'd turned them on and how enthusiastically the idea that their food production could increase significantly with Arkadian technology was received.  "People were wary of me when I showed up but by the time we left there, there were a lot of pleased people.  More food means they can keep growing, means that rations might not be so meager in the winter.  Maybe it means that their children might be judged less harshly when they're selected for trades and have a shot of contributing to their society."

"That brings up another issue," Abby interjected earnestly.  "He obviously expects you to produce an heir, multiple heirs.  Which, Raven, honestly, I think you're going to have some trouble with that."  Her face was a mask of motherly concern, even if she was bringing up a possible medical issue.

Raven suspected that would be Abby's complaint, beyond the whole rarely getting to see her.  "You told me once, before the whole 'pain management' business, that I could still have children once my implant was removed.  Was that not true?"

"No, it was true, but that was with trained doctors being around you," Abby admitted, chagrined.  

"Azgeda is the largest Clan, founded by a doctor.  You think they don't know how to take care of a pregnant woman?" Raven asked pointedly.  "Actually, you'd be surprised how many healers they have.  Every healer is a trained midwife because they have so many kids."  She chuckled.  "You know, the King, the heir, whatever, they have to be trained in every trade.  They're not experts in every trade, but they have to know the basics.  For the Azgeda healers, the basics include birthing babies, so Roan himself could probably get me through a birth."  

Clarke was nodding at her words.  "When I was with Roan, when he captured me, he was injured.  I saw him take care of the wound, clean it, seal it.  He clearly had training," she confirmed, looking straight at her mother.

"Besides, if that's really the issue, I'm sure Roan won't mind having an Arkadian doctor attend me for the birth," Raven added.

"What if I don't want to be the liaison for the Azgeda?" Harper demanded.

Raven turned to the other woman.  "He's already publically acknowledged you as belonging to the royal family.  Like it or not, even the other clans will have an interest in you now.  He's offering you a way to stay here, mostly, and also, to ensure your kids  _ won _ ' _ t  _ be part of the royal lineage, because they'll be considered Arkadians since you'll declare yourself as Arkadian."

"I can do that without being part of this-"

"No, you can't, not if he won't recognize it," Raven cut her off.  "And he won't, not if he doesn't get something for it."

"Well, I wouldn't be in that situation if someone hadn't shown him the video!" Harper yelled back at her.

Raven actually smiled ruefully in return.  "I know my role in this, that's why I'm going to be the one who becomes Azgeda, not you."

"Raven," David Miller spoke up then, while Harper subsided into speechlessness.  "You've never really said over your transmissions, but how big is the Azgeda army?"

She sat back in her seat.  "I'd say that the Azgeda nation, all of them, are something like thirty thousand people and a tenth of them are in the army.  Basically all the other Clans combined.  That's a standing army, by the way, not just adults who can fight, which is pretty much every adult.  The rest of Azgeda supports them and raises children."

"Holy shit," said Bellamy, stunned.

The Ice Nation seemed aggressive and reckless to the other Clans, but it would take every adult in the other Clans joined together to equal the military might of Azgeda.  While they probably could win an all out war against the other Clans if unified, the result would be the loss of nearly the entire army.  People would be conscripted from other trades to make up the deficit, thus impacting food production and everything else, throwing their very society out of whack.

Raven tried to explain a little of that to the Council.  "They only ever seem to mobilize around the borders in smaller numbers, but that's because most of the army is deployed to protect the crops and the settlements.  So when they say, 'We're bringing an army,' they really mean 'We're bringing a detachment that's still going to outnumber everyone else.'  Also, their war paint, their armor, the way they dress?  It's all part of the intimidation of others and to psych themselves up.  They say they operate by the First King's rules, and I'll say this for Darren, he had a pretty good grasp of human psychology."

"That's...incredible population growth," Abby began.  "How.."

"They didn't have a one child rule.  They also abandoned or killed any child born with deformities, which would probably cut down on the number of subsequent nonviable bloodlines."  Raven paused, pulling her mind back to her own natural speech patterns.  "Based on what I could figure out, talking to my, well, she's basically my servant there, which sucks for her, but she's not so bad a person.  Anyway, she said they're taught that the first generation after the Fire and the Ice, that's the nuclear holocaust and the resultant nuclear winter, was only about as strong as the previous generation, but that the second generation was much bigger.  They put a premium on reproduction, starting by our standards early, and it's rare to see a family with less than three children, or more typically five or six."

"How have they been feeding them all?" Clarke wondered.

"Not as well as they could be if they had our tech.  That's why he wants it so badly.  They've got arable land, they've got resources, but not the means to make it truly useful, the way we can."

"While I'll admit, asking a fifteen and sixteen year old to marry each other isn't ideal," Kane began.  "It's certainly better than the alternative, of allowing Harper to go with the Azgeda or become a political pawn at the Conclave."

"That's assuming they want to get married," Bellamy said.

"I'll be sixteen in two months," Monty noted, glancing at Harper.  "And if this is way to keep Harper safe and still an Arkadian, of course I'd marry her."

"I'm more worried about being an ambassador to the Azgeda then marrying you."  They actually exchanged shy smiles about about this, as if they hadn't already been in a relationship.

Raven spent the next hour debating with the Council, Harper, and Monty the wisdom of taking the Azgeda offer piece by piece but eventually, her patience wore thin.  Mindful of Roan's deadline, she laid it all out for them.

"Look, you get exactly what you want.  Peace, alliance with Azgeda, and a way to ensure they never become your enemies because I'm going to raise their next king.  Or queen.  No one would have more power in Azgeda than me because I would be both Queen and Master of Mechanics, except Roan, and I guarantee that he is not your enemy.

"Just accept it, let's have this damned party to celebrate your-" She waved between Bellamy and Clarke. "-engagement tonight and wedding tomorrow and watch the other clans fall into line.  We'll celebrate our own deal at the harvest, so that Monty is at least sixteen, a double marriage on the border between Arkadian lands and Azgeda territory, and let's be done with this."

And in the end, that's just what happened.  After Monty and Harper agreed to marry, the Council voted and Roan secured his alliance.  The deal was struck when they invited the King back into the room and Kane and Abby immediately moved the conversation to what goods and services would be exchanged in the coming months, a discussion that Roan eagerly welcomed.  Once a preliminary schedule of trade was agreed to, Roan outlined on a map where his people were currently searching for Ex Mecha gear.  

When they finally all adjourned to join the festivities, moved out of doors since the rain had long since stopped, Raven waved Roan ahead so she could lag behind and talk to Clarke.

Although Bellamy looked like he would linger as well, Clarke gave him a smile and gestured towards the door.  "One of us should be out there to accept congratulations and gifts from the other Clans."

"Diplomacy is your game, not mine," he informed her stubbornly.

"Actually, you're pretty good at it, when you try."  Clarke crossed over to him and murmured something that was too low for Raven to hear.  His reply was forceful, but also quiet, though she could guess that she was the topic of conversation by the way his gaze flew to her.  But then, he relaxed fractionally, his complete attention returning to Clarke and he nodded.

Clarke smiled in response, then leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek.  Raven watched as Bellamy's breathing caught and his hand lifted to cup her cheek as she pulled away just enough to look into his eyes.  They seemed nearly frozen in this tableau for a minute, only their eyes moving as they searched each other' face, and then Bellamy took a step back.  

"I'll leave you to it," he said, barely looking at Raven before he stalked out of the room.

"Wow," Raven responded, smirking at her friend who was gazing after her betrothed like a woman in love.  "If that's the way you two interact all the time now, I'm wondering why you didn't get married earlier."

"Shut up," Clarke answered with a grin, a faint blush, and a complete lack of malice.  When she turned to face her, she added, "I notice that you and Roan exchanged a few looks of your own."

Raven shrugged after getting to her feet.  "I've slept with him, if that's what you're looking to confirm.  It's not why I agreed to marry him."

"I know just because you have sex with someone doesn't mean you love them," Clarke acknowledged, nodding meaningfully when Raven looked at her askance.

"I'm glad he told you about that.  It wasn't...anything, really," Raven admitted, recalling her one-time fling with Bellamy.

"I know.  But that's not what's between you and Roan."

"No, it's something different.  But the marriage is just what it looks like, a way to make sure that Azgeda is never a threat to Arkadia and is, in fact, an ally."  Raven smiled.  "We don't all use political agendas to get who we want in bed," she teased.

"But he trusts you, really?  You're not just going to be Queen in name only?" Clarke stressed.   The deal might have been made, but apparently, she was already having second thoughts now that they'd moved onto talking about emotions.

Raven shook her head.  "I won't pretend that all of the Azgeda will be overjoyed with a foreign-born Queen, but their system of leadership is really clear.  The throne is in command, period.  The throne makes all of their decisions for them because only the throne knows everything necessary to make sure the Azgeda survive and thrive.  Roan's trying to change them, at least a little, but he wants a Queen who he trusts to not just react, especially with violence, at the first sign of trouble. He thinks the Azgeda have become too war-like, under his mother's rule."  She took a breath.  "And he'd like someone he can talk to as a equal, I think."

Clarke nodded slightly, willing to accept that explanation.  "And you?  Are you going to be able to be happy there?"

"Being treated literally like royalty by people who have to listen to everything I say?  Yeah, I'm not worried about my happiness," Raven joked, though her smile dimmed slightly at Clarke's serious expression.  "There are good people there.  And, everything else aside, I like Roan.  There's no bullshit with him.  He's a little overbearing sometimes, but yeah, he's a king."  She shrugged.  "You take the good with the bad."

Clarke watched her carefully then nodded once more.  "Okay.  So you're going to be Azgeda."

"Yeah.  Not really looking forward to another scar, but, it's worth it, to secure peace."

"You know at some point, we're going to have problems," Clarke mentioned as they began to leave the conference room.  "It's not going to be all fine.  Being on the ground has taught me that, if nothing else."

"And we'll figure them out.  Azgeda resources and knowledge of the ground, Arkadian minds and technology.  Can't lose."  Raven eyed her friend for a moment.  "I'm glad you're marrying Bellamy, by the way."

"Yeah?" Clarke cleared her throat.  "It's better for Arkadia when we're together.  I couldn't let us be split up again."

"Besides the fact that you work better together, I think he's got the capacity to make you happy and vice versa."  Raven smiled as Clarke ducked her head in response, then motioned to the Azgeda warrior waiting with an Arkadian guard at the juncture of the corridor.   The two men eyed each other warily.

"Looks like your guards are waiting for you," Clarke noted with some amusement.  With the alliance hinging on their weddings, it was agreed that Raven and Harper, as the two who seemed to have one foot in both worlds, would have guards from both groups while in Arkadia.

"Werk is a good guy," Raven promised.

"Thomas knows what he's doing," Clarke agreed.

When they went outside to join the pre-wedding celebration, Raven though they would separate, but instead, Clarke insisted on taking her around to meet the other heads of Clans or their representatives.  "Might as well meet with the people now you'll have to deal with as Queen," she said reasonably.  "Better they know you as Arkadian first too."

In fact, it took quite awhile for Raven to make the rounds of all the guests and when she tiredly took a seat nearly two hours later, she smiled gratefully at Harper, who offered her a cup of water as she joined her.

The two women said nothing for a moment, before Raven motioned to Harper's own guards.  "How are you adjusting to that?"

"Not well.  I mean, they followed me to the bathroom.  I half-thought the Azgeda one would follow me inside," Harper noted distastefully.  "I guess this means no more Monty sneaking into my room at night."

"He won't have to sneak.  He's supposed to marry you and I assure you, Azgeda don't care if you get a jump on the game," Raven chuckled.  "I'm sorry you have to rush things with him, but better him than-"

"Yeah, I get it."  Harper gave her half a smile.  "Probably won't ever be able to divorce him either, huh?" she joked weakly.

"No, but if it's any consolation, I can't get divorced either.  And I'm going to be living in Tombom for the rest of my life.  You get to be here most of the year.  Your children will be Arkadians."  Raven considered the younger woman.  "You should probably keep your name though.  McIntyre is going to have more significance now.  And think about giving your kids that name too."

Harper took a sip of her own drink, which was decidedly not water by her wince.  "I haven't really thought about having kids at all before today."

"I think I'm really the only one on the hot seat for that right away," Raven reassured her.

Which wasn't to say she was looking forward to it.  Having a baby, that is.  Trying to get pregnant, yeah, she could and would enjoy the hell out of that.

"What's it really like there?  In Azgeda territory?"

"It's...a place.  No different than Arkadia, or Polis.  Azgeda territory is dotted with villages, each charged with producing from a set piece of land.  Think of the villages as outposts, all beholden to a central authority.  That's Tombom, the Heart, literally, their city.  People are assigned roles, trained for them, expected to live them.  As long as they do their job, they get everything else - food, water, protection, heat in the winter.  Honestly, in a lot of ways, their system is pretty close to the one we had on the Ark."

Raven told her about other facets of Azgeda society.  She reiterated their reputation as fearsome warriors was half-earned, since they trained so early and left usually no one alive, and half-myth, since they used costuming and numbers to make themselves look more fearsome.  That they had the Trades, and the Masters of Trade to run them.  That in some ways, living in Tombom was like living in a fantasy novel.  "And otherwise, it's the same old shit, dressed up in a communist monarchy."

"Communist?"

"Highly socialist at the very least.  They don't have any place for someone who can't pull their own weight, or folks they think won't make it.  It's something that's going to change now that I'm going to be Queen.  I don't think they tried hard enough to find jobs for them, honestly."

"What about the area?  Is it very different than around here?"

"Not so much.  I mean, they have mountains, just without crazy vampire bunkers.  They have a wide river that they fish out of, complete with a beach, though it's not one you'd want to run on barefoot or sunbathe on."

Harper smiled at that.  "It's not romantic, like in the movies?"

"It smells so bad.  All the fish guts everywhere and."  Raven stopped right there, shaking her head.

Harper grimaced in distaste.

"But the fish themselves taste pretty good."  Raven grinned at her.  "They eat pretty well there.  Not necessarily huge amounts, but it's damned tasty."

"Yeah?  What's your favorite?"  Harper seemed relieved to be talking about something less overwhelming.

"Venison.  Deer.  Hands down.   But they have potatoes too, and those are great," Raven enthused around a grin.  As she continued, her gaze swept over the mass of people, pausing when she found Roan himself just moving away from a brief conversation with the Heda of the Glowing Trees Clan.

He caught her staring at him and inclined his head and she couldn't help her smirk in response.

Their plan worked and now their peoples would be partners, not just wary allies.

Roan was going to marry her and make her his Queen.

Roan loved her.

This was not the life she imagined for herself when she scrambled to get to the ground all those months ago.

Somehow, this was better.

 

* * *

 

Having secured Raven's agreement to become Azgeda and be his Queen, as well as a full alliance with Skaikru, Roan wasted no time in letting the heads of the other eleven clans know.  In return, they wasted little time in trying to figure out if he was as vicious as his mother.

He had just left the Heda of the Glowing Forest Clan with what he thought was a favorable impression, when his gaze caught on that of his future Queen.   Her sly look was both full of promise and a reminder of the way she'd neatly tested him this afternoon.  

Of course the Arkadians would have advanced methods for preventing pregnancy.  And of course, Raven would have methods to see if he wanted her for more than a broodmare.

As if he hadn't made it entirely clear how much her mind and her companionship meant to him over the past few months.  But now he knew that Raven found declarations very important and he would make use that knowledge in the years to come.

Still, he'd gotten everything he wanted.  More technology for his people, a way to keep them fed and safe, a Queen for himself, and eventually, an heir they would raise together.

Of course, some were not too pleased by the turn of events, he noted as Bellamy approached him, two other men flanking him.  The man's mouth was set, his posture stiff, even as he tried to keep his expression flat, but the clean-shaven one to his right was openly hostile.

Roan lifted a hand to make sure Arde and his other guard would not interfere, but kept his gaze on the approaching trio.  He could guess as to what they would say, but mindful of the new alliance, he did not want to give the Council reason to reevaluate their decision so soon.  He must be controlled in the face of these near children.

As they neared, he could see that Wanheda's Chosen was the most calm of the three, and in that moment, he also saw that he was with the other two to prevent an incident.  Bellamy, he knew, had likely not voted for the alliance, but he would respect the Council's decision.  But he was closer to the people in some ways than his betrothed and had positioned himself well to blunt their actions, whatever they might be.  Perhaps he recognized that just being able to confront Roan might help some of his people move forward.

Clarke was ruthless in the way of all good leaders, able to see the problems that her people faced and find solutions quickly.  Bellamy had some of the same qualities, but he was less likely to take risks unless forced to do so.  Clarke was not quite so adept at reading the emotions of her people or playing on them to ease their decisions to follow her orders.  Bellamy, on the other hand, was.

They were well-matched.

"Your anger for the Mountain remains," Roan began dryly, gaze flickering over each of the three men.  

"And for the people, the children you slaughtered," the clean-shaven one put it, until Bellamy silenced him with a calming gesture of his hand.

"Damned right it does," Bellamy finally responded, turning back to Roan.  "And I'm not the only one here who thinks so."

Roan knew he could point out how the Azgeda had honored all of their agreements under him, that the alliance only furthered the cooperation between their peoples that had worked so well to defeat Al-ee, that they were actually one people, as Raven had suggested and then proved by showing him the images of the First King with his brother, one of the first generation of Skaikru.  But he also knew that Bellamy already knew these things, had likely explained these things, and that they weren't dulling the fury of some of his people.

"Have you ever known a person who used the supposed concern for others to mask their own desire for more power?" he asked instead.

Bellamy blinked, a muscle in his jaw rippling, but he nodded curtly, while the two behind him appeared briefly confused.

"That was my mother.  She killed her own brother to assume the throne, but used her husband to do it.  She wanted to further strike at Lexa so she could put her pet on the throne at Polis, but used a man grieving the loss of his family to do it.  My mother always had that way to get what she wanted through death and destruction, but always used someone else as the weapon for her own desires."  

Roan glanced at one of the bonfires that held a gathering of members from various krus, including an Azgeda and an Arkadian.  "She didn't realize or care that simply by allying with the Skaikru, we could have undermined the Coalition and weakened Lexa further.  She didn't realize that when over a hundred people appeared in our territory after falling from the sky, with so many of them children, that this was not an attack on Azgeda.  She forgot our history and nearly ruined our future when she ordered the attack.  Both attacks."

"How could your... _ people _ ," the smoothed-face man spit out.  "Kill children?"

Roan very nearly retorted with the words he'd thrown at Raven once upon a time - that the Azgeda were not alone in killing children.  But instead, mindful of their declared peace, he explained, "They did as they were ordered to do.  My mother, Nia, she is dead because of their poor decisions.  It would have been better that she looked to our history on what to do."

"And what was that?" Bellamy questioned, angling his body slightly to put himself between the angry one and Roan.

Containing his smile, he explained, "During the time of Sooze, early in her reign, the Azgeda began to expand south.  We found another clan, another kru.  We needed their land to feed our people and they did not want to trade with us.  So we made them Azgeda, adding their people to our own.  And in return, their women stopped dying in childbirth.  More of their children survived to adulthood.  They did not want us, but we saved them.  Our way of life and our knowledge saved them."

"The Thirteenth Station," the bearded one murmured, glancing at his companions.

Ignoring the reference for now, Roan focused on the one behind Bellamy who seemed so angry.  "When over a hundred healthy and strong men, women and children dropped from the sky into our territory, the order should have been to capture them.  If the adults were hostile, the order should have been to take the children and kill the adults.  But my mother just attacked.  She was foolish, and she was cruel, and now she is dead.  Believe me when I said that no one mourns for the Queen."

Arde snorted quietly behind him.

"But I would have realized what was actually going on, and with my heir being raised by Raven, she or he will too.  My mother forgot why we live as we do.  We have a monarch because when there are many people, the goal can be lost when there are too many voices."

"And what is that goal?" Bellamy asked, voice low.

"'Easy live and quiet die.'  Perhaps not for ourselves, but for future generations.  I think this alliance will allow my people to live easier and die more quietly than we did during the Ice or the Fire or the wars of the past," Roan stated.  "That is the goal, has been the goal since Darron.  My mother forgot that.  I will not.  My heir will not."

"That's a quote from something," the bearded one said in surprise.  "I've heard that before."

Roan smiled slightly.  "I do not doubt it."  Raven had said something similar when she first heard it.  "Apparently, Darron, our First King, was well-educated."

Roan heard Raven come up beside him, but he did not turn his head.

"Even if you can't trust him, you can trust me," she announced loudly, gaze focused on the angry young man.

"Can I?" the man rounded on her.  "They killed little kids on the say of some-"

"Queen.  On the say so of their Queen, who was just as powerful as our Chancellor.  They didn't elect her, but it was the same thing.  How many eighteen year-olds did we throw out of airlocks because of something they did as children years before?  We sent ninety-nine kids down here to die, one for the crime of being born-" Raven looked directly at Bellamy.  "-so it's not like we're saints either."

"They're monsters, Raven," the man spat, stepping forward though he was quickly restrained by Bellamy and the other.

Again, Roan held up a hand to prevent the Azgeda guards from interfering, wanting to see what his Queen would do in the face of the insult towards their people. 

"So are we," Raven retorted.  "We're all capable of terrible things when the people we love or the people who depend on us are threatened.  They call Clarke Wanheda, but you were part of the massacre of the army outside our borders, Bryan.  Bellamy was part of that and the killing of every man, woman and child in the Mountain.  I don't even know how many people I've killed between what I did in the Mountain and the bombs I've made here on the ground.  Hundreds, probably."  She eyed Bellamy specifically.  "'Barbequed Grounders', remember?"

Bellamy blanched and the one called Bryan took a step back at her vehemence.  

"We're just not as different as you want us to be," Raven continued, voice still hot with emotion.  "But Azgeda doesn't want a war anymore than we do.  And if you can't trust them, trust me.  I'm about to be Queen and that isn't a title they give out lightly."

"You're not just going to agree with whatever he says?" Bryan demanded.

"I don't blindly follow someone just because I slept with him," she informed him with a snort of derision.  

Bellamy turned to Roan after making sure the bearded one had ahold of his fellow.  "And you?  You trust her?"

"I wouldn't be making her my Queen if I didn't."  Roan smiled without humor.  "There's a man among us who would not be alive if I did not pay attention when she speaks."

Bellamy looked carefully between the two of them, considering.  He finally nodded once, before telling Roan, "I don't care what you do, she'll always have a home with us.  She'll always be one of us." 

He didn't wait for a reply, merely pushed away the other two who came with him.  Roan and Raven both watched silently as he deposited them with one of the other Council members, then wound through the crowd to get to Clarke's side, his expression finally softening when he exchanged smiles with her.

"He trusts you," Raven commented to Roan's surprise.

"I was fairly certain he was saying he didn't," Roan disagreed mildly.  "He wasn't trying to start a fight but he felt it important to let me know that not all were happy about this alliance."

"He wouldn't have shown you his back like that if he didn't, he'd be fighting harder against this alliance if he didn't.  But mostly he trusts Clarke and he trusts me, and we both trust you to keep your word," Raven described, finally offering him a slight smile.  "I think he just wanted you to know he was watching you actually, and that there would be people willing to follow him."

"Our peoples will watch each other but the next generation will trust each other," Roan commented, nodding slightly.  He didn't miss her sharp look but he merely shrugged.  "My Queen was born Arkadian and my heir will trained as no other has been, with knowledge that I don't think even Darron possessed.   I think that will make the Arkadians more likely to trust Azgeda."  

He could see the child in his mind's eye now, smart and fast, able to speak in the technical tongue of her mother and fight like her father, able to work in any Trade, even the new mechanic one.  She would have the trust of Arkadia implicitly, a trust he would nurture, by sending his Queen and his child to visit for a season every other year.  And in return, he would welcome the children borne of Harper, who would speak well of the Azgeda people.

But that scheme he would suggest sometime in the future.  Not now.

"That's a lot of expectation to put on a kid," Raven said skeptically.  

"Do you think our child would be unable to fulfill the duties of the throne?"

She snorted, her smile returning.  "I'm awesome, you're awesome, the child can't help but be awesome."

Roan guffawed, then motioned towards the bulk of the revelers.  "Come, let's sit.  If we are in the middle of the crowd, we're less likely to be given vague threats."

Raven laughed and inclined her head in a deft mimicry of his own gesture, one that made him grin.

That they were already together, speaking easily, was not unremarked by others.  The heads of nearly every Clan were watching them as they moved towards one of the fires, where there were seats still freely available.  He knew they made a striking pair, her darkness and his fair features, walking as one already.  Although their marriage would not take place for a few months, he knew they had clearly shown all who were here that they were already a team.

As they walked, Roan locked eyes with Monty, the young man who would be marrying his relative.  Nursing a drink, he watched Roan with dark eyes, while a reedy man with close-shaved hair sat next to him and spoke animatedly.

Nearing the two, he could begin to make out their conversation.

"You love Harper, so if you're married, you'd get assigned your own quarters and you can stop sneaking around," the thin one said.

"I'm not worried about that.  I'm worried about when we're in their territory."

"She's like, their princess, right?  Pretty sure that means a lot of a good food and a nice bed.  Wouldn't worry about it, man."  He clapped Monty on the back.  "Hey, maybe they even have the ingredients to make ice cream," he suggested to his friend as they passed them both.  

Roan gave Monty a nod of recognition, while Raven smiled reassuringly at them.  "What is this 'ice cream'?" he asked Raven in a low voice, pitched only for her ears.

"Do you remember that video, of Darren and Chris, and they were eating a food on a stick?  That was ice cream, shaped into bricks.  I don't know the recipe, but I think it involves milk, ice and salt.  I think I read that once."

"Salt?"

"That part, I actually understand," she told him with a wide grin.  "But Jasper would understand more because he's a chemist by training." She motioned to the thin man.  "Ah, someone who understands the properties of various materials and knows how to combine them in ways to make them more useful."

"Is he?" Roan mused.  "Will he come with Harper and Monty when they come to Tombom?"

"It's hard to pry Monty and Jasper apart, so yeah, I expect it," Raven confirmed.  "Actually, that might be good for Jasper, to get away from here.  I mean, he's doing better than he was, but I think he'd like being at Tombom."  She eased into a seat and he took the one next to her, her guards and his coming to a stop a few yards away.

"Unfortunate that we have to wait until the harvest though.  I do not see the point in delaying this, especially with a marriage to take place tomorrow and all the Clans already gathered."  It was his only complaint about the events of the day.

"Monty turns sixteen in two months.  I think the Council was squeamish about asking them to marry sooner."  Raven picked at something on her leg, adding, "It's not like with us, either.  Monty and Harper might have been together, but I don't think they were thinking about the future yet.  Not like us."

Roan smiled at that admission.  "You were thinking of our future?"

"You wanted trained mechanics.  That meant at least a couple of years and I wasn't planning on being celibate the whole time."  She made a face.  "I can't believe that a grounder even knows the word 'celibate'," she added.  "You Azgeda are so weird."

"We Azgeda," he corrected softly.  "You are to become one of us."

"Yeah, about that…," she began, her tone careful and he immediately tensed.  "I'm not really interested in getting a scar on my face.  Can we do something somewhere else?  Like my shoulder, maybe?"

Roan let out the breath he didn't even realize he was holding.  "The point is so you are known immediately as Azgeda.  If you are truly unwilling to have marks on your face, we can discuss some other places that might work," he allowed, eyeing her neck.  "As long as anyone looking at you would know you for Azgeda right away."

"So as long as my shoulder is always uncovered, that works, right?" Raven seized upon his words, smiling.

"We can discuss it," Roan repeated, amused.

She just turned towards him, leaning forward slightly.  "Tell you what.  Let's make a deal," she said and he grinned, eager to hear her offer.   
  



	7. Coda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The epilogue I think people want.

Raven hated everything about being pregnant.  The feeling that her body was not her own, the tiredness, the sickness.  Even when she felt good, she felt bad, out of control and uncomfortable.

And the birth and the weeks that followed?   Awful.   The pains of contractions, the soreness, the bleeding for almost a month afterward.  Her misery never seemed to end.

She told Roan she didn't want to have another one, despite Azgeda being the land of multiple children and despite the fact that she knew he wanted more than one.

But he had just given her a long look and nodded.  "Whatever my Queen thinks is best," he told her.

The nearly three years since her son's birth had done little to change her mind.

Until today.

There was just something about watching Jacobo show Miles how to use the remote control of a little car he'd built for the boy to play with, the way her son's face lit up the first time he saw the toy and the grin he gave her when he successfully made it turn around and come back to him.  She looked forward to the day she could show him how to pull it apart, see the inner workings and then put it back together.

She smiled at her son from the side of the courtyard, fingering the long marks on her collarbone that encircled her neck.  They were the same marks that Roan wore on his face, merely turned on their sides, with the hexagon that signaled her as a mechanic sitting in the hollow of her throat.  She often found herself tracing the pattern when she was lost in thought.

Raven heard the quiet footsteps approaching with the long-since familiar gait and said without turning, "He's a fast learner."

"He has his mother's mind," Roan answered.  "As well as her looks."

That was true.  The little boy resembled Raven completely in his coloring.  Roan's contributions were going to be to his height, his build and his patience.  Even at two, almost three, Miles was a quiet, thoughtful child who had taken to learning very well, be it letters and numbers or the games of quickness Roan played with him in the evenings.

While Raven often felt pride in her son's accomplishments, she hadn't thought she was really capable of that maternal, overwhelming instinct that others seemed to have, like the Griffin women.  She'd seen the lengths Abby had gone to for Clarke and now, Clarke had a daughter of her own that she wouldn't hesitate to become Wanheda for again.  Of course, that was the secret of Clarke.  She wouldn't ever hesitate to become Wanheda again if it meant saving her people, not matter how much she suffered for it personally.

Raven's own mother had done little enough for her in her life and there was a long time that she wondered if maybe the Reyes' women just weren't capable of real, maternal love.  Even if she was capable of it, what kind of example would she set?  She didn't know how a mother was supposed to act, certainly not with a little kid.  She knew enough not to trade Miles' rations for alcohol, but that wasn't really a problem.  His whole life, she'd worried she wasn't good enough a mother for him, but rather closer to a fond aunt, or maybe a really nice teacher more than anything else.

But today?  Whatever phantom, internal wall Raven had erected to protect herself from loving her son wholeheartedly evaporated, seeing him play with a toy she would have killed to have as a child, and she admitted to herself at least that she had always felt this way.  She just hadn't let herself enjoy it before.

Still, being pregnant was truly awful.

And yet, here she was, pondering it once more.

"I have a deal to propose," she told her husband before she lost her nerve.    

He raised a brow as he turned towards her.  Four years together and she hadn't stopped being desperately attracted to him, probably as much for his sardonic humor as anything else. 

Okay, his chiseled physique was also up there.

"If you can get me pregnant in the next three months, we can have another child.  But that's it, only three months to do it."

A slow smile spread over Roan's face and with little warning, he grabbed and hoisted her in his arms.  "You realize you've given me incentive to bother you incessantly for the next three months," he warned her, already turning to walk her back into their rooms.

"You're a good King; you would never neglect your other duties," she laughed confidently as she wrapped her arms around his neck.  "Or allow me to neglect mine."   More mechanics were sorely needed to help the farmers and the fishers with the machines and equipment trade with Arkadia had brought them and she had a full class of trainees due to start in the next week.

"True.  I will simply have to wake you earlier and make you stay up later," he easily found a work-around.  He was rather clever, her husband.

"That's not exactly how it works, you know.  There are better ways to time this if you're really interested in a second child," she informed him.

"I will not waste this excuse," he replied stubbornly.  "Especially if you are to summer with Miles in Arkadia and leave me alone for the season."

Raven pulled herself up enough to give him a hot, eager kiss, one that made him stop in his tracks and stole his breath.  When she eased back, she smirked at him.  "Then let's give you a season's worth of memories to keep you company."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who read, commented, left kudos or subscribed! I know I ended this before I originally planned, but I hope you found it worthwhile to stay 'til the end.
> 
> You may yell at me on [Tumblr](https://callmehux.tumblr.com/).

**Author's Note:**

> This was a fic inspired by the Ice Mechanic Fan Fiction blog on tumblr and its monthly prompt challenge. Chapter titles were the prompts for each month. I hope you enjoyed the story!


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